Norrköping Symphony Orchestra/Ari Rasilainen
CPO 777665-2 63:48 mins
You couldn’t accuse the CPO label of hurrying its cycle of early-20th-century symphonies by Sweden’s Natanael Berg, possibly the only composer to serve as a vet at his country’s royal stables. The first volume appeared in 2009 and the second in 2010, but we’ve had to wait a full 13 years for Ari Rasilainen and his Norrköping forces to reach the climax.
At least we go out with a big bang: the 40-minute ‘Trilogia delle passioni’ is in his most grandiose, quasi-Straussian vein, with heavy brass artillery, heaving chromatic harmonies and a philosophical narrative describing the process from human suffering to final spiritual redemption. If 1924 seems a bit late to be mounting a gargantuan symphonic exhibit, the music itself is mostly convincing, well constructed, and teeming with enjoyable instrumental life.
The only major letdown is the peaceful chorale of the final pages, a ‘happy ending’ that deserves music of greater character than the watery conclusion Berg provides. Rasilainen’s musicians sail through the earlier tempests very well.
The Fourth Symphony of 1918 is another matter entirely. Compensating perhaps for
Europe’s four years of war, Berg and his friend Kurt Atterberg decided to challenge each other to write light symphonies timed to 20 minutes, with the stipulation of a tuba solo somewhere. Berg’s creation shows his orchestrating finesse (the woodwind writing is almost French), Mendelssohn flits over the second movement, which he titled ‘Fairy Frolics’, but the melodic material isn’t captivating enough to keep the listener riveted to the spot. The Fifth, however...