Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

Friday, September 16, 2005

Symphony No. 5 in B Minor “Solitudo”; Violin Concerto in F-Sharp Minor
Wilhelm Peterson-Berger
Norrköping Symphony Orchestra,
Michail Jurowski, conductor; Ulf Wallin, violin
CPO 999 984-2 (Distributed by Naxos)

Wilhelm Peterson-Berger (1867-1942) is a name unlikely to hold much resonance in the English-speaking world, but in his native Sweden he is regarded as one of the most important composers of the first half of the twentieth century. In addition to his activities as a composer and conductor, Peterson-Berger was for over thirty years the music critic for Stockholm’s Dagens Nyheter (The Daily News), a post he used to alienate and infuriate most of his contemporaries in Swedish musical circles. A committed Wagnerian who was extremely suspicious of modernist tendencies, Peterson-Berger composed in a style that is ironically and conspicuously non-Wagnerian as well as non-modernist.

Symphony No. 5 “Solitudo” was composed in the years 1932 and 1933 and is a four-movement work, the thematic materials of which are taken from Swedish folk tunes or are folk-like in nature. The symphony’s subtitle is in reference to the composer’s retirement in 1930 to his estate in northern Sweden and is not meant to convey a sense of loneliness. Indeed, the mood of the symphony is generally ebullient, although the work does conclude in an attenuated and somber tone.

Peterson-Berger’s compositional style is much more indebted to Brahms than to his idol Wagner. This is very much in evidence throughout the work, no more so than in the symphony’s concluding movement (Allegro molto—Andante molto tranquillo). The second movement (Scherzando vivo, delicatissimo—Allegro moderato) is a Ländler-like dance that never attains the gravity or developmental complexity of Mahler. And for a composer who was as heavily influenced by German romanticism as Peterson-Berger, it is still more ironic that his approach to the development of musical motifs was not so much indebted to the romantics as it was to the impressionists, whose music Peterson-Berger critically derided.

The Norrköping Symphony Orchestra performs this symphony with obvious affinity and understanding, and its strings and woodwinds are quite commendable. Those who
are used to the brass sections of Chicago, New York and Berlin may, however, find this brass section’s sound to be a little off-putting, especially the horns.

Peterson-Berger’s Violin Concerto in F-Sharp Minor was composed in fits and starts beginning in 1912 and was not completed until 1928. Composed in the traditional three-movement format, the concerto adheres to the composer’s eschewing of virtuoso pyrotechnics. It would be difficult to imagine a violin concerto more unlike Mendelssohn’s.

While the Violin Concerto is a lyrical and pleasant composition, it displays Peterson-Berger’s weaknesses as a self-avowed proponent of German romanticism. He seldom develops a theme beyond repetition or repetition within a sequence pattern. In the first movement (Allegro moderato, ma appassionata), Peterson-Berger wisely places a violin cadenza in lieu of much of the development section. The third movement is a sonata-rondo (Allegro moderato, ma con fuoco) that has a decidedly Oriental flavor and features pentatonic melodies. This has led many critics to conclude that Peterson-Berger was influenced by the success of Puccini’s Turandot, a notion that must have driven the Swedish composer to distraction given his stern critical disapproval of Puccini’s music.

As violin soloist, Ulf Wallin gives a creditable performance of Peterson-Berger’s concerto, although in all fairness, it must be said that this work does not allow the soloist the opportunities to demonstrate interpretive and technical proficiency as is the case with standard works from the repertory. Wilhelm Peterson-Berger was an accomplished, but minor composer whose works are worth examining on their own merits as well as providing historical insights into the transition from romanticism to modernism. Many composers were caught in the stylistic maelstrom of the fin-de-siecle (think Reger, Strauss, and Busoni, for example) and Peterson-Berger was no different. He created a style that can be termed German romanticism-lite or Impressionism-with-a-Germanic-twist that is unassuming, pleasant, and quaint (in the good sense of that word). The Norrköping Symphony Orchestra deserves praise for bringing the music of Wilhelm Peterson-Berger to our attention.

posted by William Grim 10:55 AM