Scandinavian Composers
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 3:21 am
I've been learning several wonderful pieces by Scadinavian composers recently, and all three have been haunting my days (and nights) since. Piano music by most composers from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden is still relatively unknown territory for many of us, so I'd like to recommend a couple of works that I think are (if not flat out masterpieces) works of great expressive power, and deserving of far more exposure in recitals. I'm sure there's much more out there, and would welcome suggestions of other pieces to explore.
To kick off, here are four Scandinavian pieces that I can't believe I didn't get to know earlier:
Stenhammer: Nights in Late Summer, op. 33. Perhaps Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammer's greatest piano work (he wrote several piano sonatas as well), the five short pieces of Nights has an autumnal, melancholic feel that is quite extraordinary, with an atmosphere a little reminiscent of some of Grieg's late Lyric pieces. There's also an interesting preoccupation in places with the lower register of the keyboard, which adds to the dark atmosphere. The work takes a little time to work its spell, but then (in my experience at least) it's a piece of rare, autumnal beauty.
Incidentally Stenhammer also wrote some exceptionally nice orchestral music: the first symphony is a real knowckout - it's quite inexplicably been very rarely played (although recorded twice, by Neema Jarvi, on BIS and DG).
An old edition of the music is available on IMSLP at: http://imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/d ... s_Op33.pdf
Madetoja: Kuoleman Puutarha (The Garden of Death). Written, like the second symphony after the death in the Finnish Civil War, of the composer's brother, this is the best and most deeply-felt of Madetoja's piano works. Anyone familiar with the darkly beautiful second symphony will immediately recognise the harmonic world of the first of the three pieces, which is a piece of marvellous harmonic lushness coupled with a real emotional impact. The remaining two pieces of this deeply sad little suite (a valse triste and a gentle berceuse with a stern warning at the end) are lighter in texture, but just as heartfelt and moving.
IMSLP has the music: http://imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/2 ... a_Mort.pdf
Nielsen: Suite, op. 45: Nielsen's suite for piano is a lot better known than these last two pieces, although it seems much less popular than the Chaconne. Nielsen apparently regretted initially calling it the 'Lucifer' suite, but there's no doubt that some of the music is truly demonic in its intensity (beginning with the scarifying middle section of the 1st movement). A puzzling, extraordinarily wide-ranging piece, it has the added advantage of an extraordinarily exhilarating final page.
For the music, see IMSLP at: http://imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/f ... _Op.45.pdf
Rautavaara: Narcissus. Short and absolutely magical (what a wonderful fade out at the end!), post-Ravelian, Narcissus and another recent Rautavaara piano work, Passionale would each make a wonderful encore.
Narcissus is published by Fennica: http://www.fennicagehrman.fi/salescat.htm; Passionale is under Boosey and Hawkes
I'm sure there's a great deal more to explore. Looking back at these four works, I continue to be astounded by the depth and contrast between these all-too-neglected works from an area of the world still best known to pianists for producing Grieg.
To kick off, here are four Scandinavian pieces that I can't believe I didn't get to know earlier:
Stenhammer: Nights in Late Summer, op. 33. Perhaps Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammer's greatest piano work (he wrote several piano sonatas as well), the five short pieces of Nights has an autumnal, melancholic feel that is quite extraordinary, with an atmosphere a little reminiscent of some of Grieg's late Lyric pieces. There's also an interesting preoccupation in places with the lower register of the keyboard, which adds to the dark atmosphere. The work takes a little time to work its spell, but then (in my experience at least) it's a piece of rare, autumnal beauty.
Incidentally Stenhammer also wrote some exceptionally nice orchestral music: the first symphony is a real knowckout - it's quite inexplicably been very rarely played (although recorded twice, by Neema Jarvi, on BIS and DG).
An old edition of the music is available on IMSLP at: http://imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/d ... s_Op33.pdf
Madetoja: Kuoleman Puutarha (The Garden of Death). Written, like the second symphony after the death in the Finnish Civil War, of the composer's brother, this is the best and most deeply-felt of Madetoja's piano works. Anyone familiar with the darkly beautiful second symphony will immediately recognise the harmonic world of the first of the three pieces, which is a piece of marvellous harmonic lushness coupled with a real emotional impact. The remaining two pieces of this deeply sad little suite (a valse triste and a gentle berceuse with a stern warning at the end) are lighter in texture, but just as heartfelt and moving.
IMSLP has the music: http://imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/2 ... a_Mort.pdf
Nielsen: Suite, op. 45: Nielsen's suite for piano is a lot better known than these last two pieces, although it seems much less popular than the Chaconne. Nielsen apparently regretted initially calling it the 'Lucifer' suite, but there's no doubt that some of the music is truly demonic in its intensity (beginning with the scarifying middle section of the 1st movement). A puzzling, extraordinarily wide-ranging piece, it has the added advantage of an extraordinarily exhilarating final page.
For the music, see IMSLP at: http://imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/f ... _Op.45.pdf
Rautavaara: Narcissus. Short and absolutely magical (what a wonderful fade out at the end!), post-Ravelian, Narcissus and another recent Rautavaara piano work, Passionale would each make a wonderful encore.
Narcissus is published by Fennica: http://www.fennicagehrman.fi/salescat.htm; Passionale is under Boosey and Hawkes
I'm sure there's a great deal more to explore. Looking back at these four works, I continue to be astounded by the depth and contrast between these all-too-neglected works from an area of the world still best known to pianists for producing Grieg.