In his symphonic works Torbjorn Iwan Lundquist is using a special technique, in which large form is made from large musical blocks. The third symphony is written in one movement, but you can distinguish three blocks and a concluding part, ‘the reminiscence’- in which the accumulated power reverts to the original nothingness in the end. The third symphony was begun in 1971 in Jamtland and was completed in 1975 at Salto in Bohuslan. As in most of Lundquist’s symphonies, this symphony begins with a primal cell, his association theme, a gust of wind, which unfolds into a grandiose sunrise. Nature means a lot for Lundquist. The idea for the Symphony No. 3- which also had the title Sinfonia dolorosa and is dedicated to the composer’s deceased wife Maud- he got during a mountain hike, shortly after his wife’s death. The symphony was first performed in September 1976 in Malmo, by Malmo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Janos Furst. Lundquist was working on the fourth symphony for several years, mainly in 1984-85. Also this is in a single long, mighty, movement. It is almost twice as long as the third symphony, and it is also written for large orchestra with extensive percussion. After the premiere in Gothenburg in October 1985, with the Gothenburg Symphony under the direction of Sixten Ehrling, who also got the dedication, the composer withdrew the score and revised it slightly a year later. “Performance, yes- because the composition does not feel completely finished until I heard it,” says Lundquist.

The fourth volume of the BIS Tchaikovsky cycle focuses on Symphony No. 2, nicknamed for its use of themes from the folk music of Ukraine ('Little Russia'). The first presentation of the work, at a private gathering, was a welcome success for the young Tchaikovsky in 1872: 'The entire assembled company almost tore me apart with delight, and Mme Korsakov, with tears in her eyes, asked if she might arrange it for piano four hands.' Even so, seven years later, during a stay in Rome, Tchaikovsky reworked the symphony radically. As on previous discs, the symphony is combined with shorter, and often less well-known, works. The Overture to Ostrovsky's play The Storm - later used by Janacek for his Kata Kabanova - was written as a holiday assignment during Tchaikovsky's studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and earned him his teacher's disapproval for the extravagant, Berlioz-inspired scoring. The Overture in F was also a student work, which Tchaikovsky adapted for large orchestra when offered a welcome opportunity to have his work performed in Moscow. Just a couple of years later, he received a prestigious commission for a work to mark the wedding of the Tsarevich Alexander with the Danish Princess Dagmar. In the resulting Festive Overture he used motifs from the Danish and Russian national anthems, finally letting the Danish anthem resound in all its glory, in a splendid Maestoso. Even in later life Tchaikovsky regarded this piece highly, preferring it to the much more popular '1812' Overture. The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under its principal conductor emeritus Neeme Järvi gives all in this interesting programme.

Neeme Järvi is one of the most recorded conductors of our time - but this is the first time he records the Tchaikovsky symphonies! He does so with "his" orchestra of 22 years standing, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra: a combination whose many recordings on BIS has made huge audiences very happy indeed! That Tchaikovsky and Järvi really is a 'dream team' concert audiences all over the world have been able to hear for themselves over the years. A student of the legendary Yevgeni Mravinsky - whose Tchaikovsky interpretations are still considered among the greatest - Järvi here gives us a vibrant Pathétique of unusual clarity, firmly rooted in the great Russian tradition, followed up by a Francesca da Rimini of great passion and fire. We are of course extremely proud to be able to offer this unique opportunity to fans of Tchaikovsky, Järvi, the GSO - and to all other music lovers. That the recording is also one of the first multi-channel, surround sound releases of these much-loved works surely adds to the attraction! As will be the coming instalments in the Järvi-GSO Tchaikovsky cycle, this disc is a Hybrid Super Audio CD, meaning that it is playable on all CD and SACD players with an option of stereo or surround sound when played back on SACD equipment. Packed in an elegant slipcase, this is a release which certainly should make a difference to anyone's CD collection!

Born in 1972, Albert Schnelzer has established himself as one of the most successful contemporary Swedish composers. Taking inspiration from both dance and literature, he writes music that has been described as pulsating with feverish tension and vibrating rhythms, outgoing but with room for fragile and lyrically expressive moments. The three works gathered here were composed between 2011 and 2014, with two multi-movement works flanking the single-movement Tales from Suburbia. The work is inspired by the idea of suburbs embodying the transition between countryside and urbanity, where the organic world of nature contrasts with concrete structures and where past meets present. Framing Tales from Suburbia are two concertos, one for cello and one for orchestra, which both owe a debt to the rock band Pink Floyd’s iconic album Dark Side of the Moon. The work titles – Crazy Diamond and Brain Damage – are both borrowed from the album tracklist, and the individual movements carry titles taken from the lyrics. As Schnelzer himself explains in his liner notes, he hasn’t used any actual musical quotations but the lyrics have provided catalysts for his own music. In the cello concerto his focus has been on the fate of Syd Barrett, one of the founder members of Pink Floyd who was forced to leave the band due to deteriorating mental health. Brain Damage – Concerto for Orchestra on the other hand can be seen in terms of wandering through a series of different moods: anger, frustration, grief and perhaps even a glimpse of hope.

Taking a phone call, Miklós Rózsa could scarcely believe that the legendary violin virtuoso Jascha Heifetz really was seriously interested in his Violin Concerto and ready to give the work its premiere – but so he did in 1956, and the first recording of the work, with its extreme technical challenges, was also made by Heifetz. And it had been just the same with the Violin Concerto by Korngold: the 1947 premiere and the brilliant first recording of this 20th-century classic again showcased Heifetz as soloist.

In the new generation of genuinely American musicians, one outstanding figure was Leonard Bernstein, an all-rounder whose early success led on to even greater heights. Bernstein rated his Violin Concerto of 1954, “Serenade,” inspired by Plato’s Symposium, as his best work ever, and this work too in its imaginatively slimmed-down scoring is now acknowledged to be an important 20th-century concerto for violin.

As an “encore,” this compilation includes the masterly Symphonic Dances from the immortal “West Side Story.”

REVIEWS:

This set of American concertos sees her widen her recorded repertoire still further and her performances of all three are highly successful. She’s very well supported by the young Finnish conductor, Santtu-Matias Rouvali who here appears with the two orchestras of which he’s currently Music Director. The Gothenburg Symphony does the honors on the first disc while disc two features the Tampere Philharmonic. Both orchestras make first rate contributions.

— MusicWeb International

Coming under the form of a beautiful antique pink and dark green 3-shutters digipack and two-LPs Gatefold, 'Two Roses' is by Avishai's words "a once in a lifetime project". Associating his core trio (Mark Guiliana, Elchin Shirinov) with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Avishai Cohen offers a very cinematic project between Jazz, Mediterranean Folklore and Classical music, reexploring a part of his musical journey. Not only proposing new orchestrations of his most successful works, 'Two Roses' is also strongly supported by 'When I'm Falling', an original composition showing how far the sound of Avishai Cohen has developed. The vinyl edition features 2 exclusive tracks in addition to the 12 songs already recorded; including a Symphonic version of Seven Seas which is one of Avishai's most beloved compositions.

Over 20 years ago, Alex Ross, the noted music critic for the New Yorker, described the atmosphere of a Martha Argerich recital in terms reminiscent of the golden age of nineteenth century piano virtuosos: “Her concerts conjure up scenes from another place and time: grown men running down the aisles clutching bouquets, world-renowned musicians pummeling the railings of the upper boxes, jaded critics breaking into foolish smiles.” The subject of these rapturous responses, has, unlike the traditional virtuoso, played relatively few solo recitals, preferring to make music with others. This set is the 8th volume of DOREMI’s special series of live performances and broadcasts featuring the artistry of the young Martha Argerich.

Born into a working-class family, Anders Eliasson’s earliest musical experiences originated from within himself: ‘they were my own singing, and tunes I heard on the radio’. At the age of nine he began to play the trumpet, and soon after he became the leader of a jazz band for which he wrote arrangements. Aged 14, he found a local organist to teach him harmony and counterpoint, and at 16 he left his hometown for Stockholm to study privately. In 1966 Eliasson enrolled at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, studying the various techniques and trends of modernism, from dodecaphony to musique concrete. But in the end he found it impossible to ‘break away from more than a thousand years of tradition’, as he put it: ‘Music is like H2O: melody, harmony and rhythm are a single entity. And it has to flow.’ The three works recorded here – all for the first time – are examples of the highly personal idiom he developed as a consequence.

REVIEW:

Eliasson’s Symphony No 3 operates on a continuous weave, the saxophone often riding its surface, whose tightness can put a clamp on the music. To my ears the modality sounds restrictive, rather than a parameter to prompt greater creativity. There are some fine moments, none better than the celestial transition from the ‘Fremiti’ third movement to the ‘Lugubre’ fourth (of five).

Similarly, Eliasson’s Trombone Concerto is a work of deeper structural principle than the label ‘concerto’ might denote and one in which the composer instructed the dedicatee Christian Lindberg to ‘play like a caged bird’. Once more the music can chase its own tail, without the degree of structural fascination or universal vision – the sort Nørgård finds from even more restrictive means – that might have rendered such a chase thrilling.

Thank heavens for Eliasson’s Symphony No 4, in which the composer’s obsessive compositional personality yields embracing fruits. Here the tonal journey is better defined, the development of a single motif clearer and more ripe, the textures more varied and the feeling generally more visceral.

All said and done, a mixed bag. But the soloists give their works everything and the conductors don’t shirk on Eliasson’s firm principles, even if Oramo has more to work with.

-- Gramophone