Passionate about the music of his own country, Peter Friis Johansson has commissioned new works as well as worked toward the unearthing of overlooked masterpieces of Swedish music. His latest disc presents the fruits of these efforts: one older, unfinished work with a completion by Johansson himself, the two others commissions made on his initiative. All three concertos were premièred between 2017 and 2020. At the turn of the previous century, Laura Netzel was one of Sweden’s most acclaimed and frequently performed composers internationally. Composed around that time, the Piano Concerto, Netzel’s largest composition, exceeds the expected framework with grand dramatic gestures and waves of emotion. Sven-David Sandström’s Five Pieces departs from the traditional concerto form with its division into ‘pieces’. The solo piano seems to seek to twist dissonances from the hands of a reluctant orchestra to recover beauty and harmony, striving, as the composer put it, ‘for something that can be found high up, per­haps a heavenly ascension’. Stellar Clouds, Andrea Tarrodi’s first piano concerto is another heavenly journey, reminiscent of the soundtracks of science-fiction movies. Here, the soloist might be interpreted as a sort of protector of humanity that seeks to provide a safe haven for personal harmony in a complex cosmic context.

This is the first ever album devoted to the chamber music of Helena Munktell, one of the earliest female composers in Sweden. The daughter of an industrialist, Munktell received private lessons in piano and song from an early age, but soon also training in music theory and composition. In 1877 she visited Paris, where two of her sisters lived, and during the next thirty-odd years the city would be a second home to her. Here she studied with composers such as Benjamin Godard and Vincent d’Indy, and became a member of Société Nationale de Musique (SNM), an organization promoting French music and providing opportunities for young composers to have their works performed. A selection of Munktell’s songs had been performed, in Swedish, at a Society concert in 1892 and in 1900 they were heard again, but now in the French versions released the same year by the reputed musical publisher Alphonse Leduc. The Dix Mélodies are finely crafted musical scenes displaying a wide expressive range and variety of moods. Five years later another SNM concert saw the first performance of Munktell’s Violin Sonata in E flat major, by none other than the renowned Romanian violinist George Enescu. Franck’s famous A major Sonata, which Munktell knew well, served as an important source of inspiration in regards to the cyclic form and harmonic writing. The sonata soon appeared in print, now from E. Demets, another French music publisher. The third work on this album is a small-scale piano trio, probably an early work and possibly composed for performance at one of the musical salons at the Munktell family home in Stockholm.

Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied. It is often referred to as the Ring Cycle, Wagner's Ring, or simply The Ring. Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. The four parts that constitute the Ring cycle are, in sequence, Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold), Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), Siegfried and finally, Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods). This production, featuring the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and the Den Jyske Operas Kor conducted by Francesco Cristofoli was recorded live on September 6, 1987.