Johan Svendsen: Orchestral Works Volume 2

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[The Cello Concerto] is a fascinating and addictive work that deserves more airings...But Jarvi and his Norwegians are on scintillating form throughout and the Cello Concerto and dark readings... — Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2012 More…

Release Date: 3rd Sep 2012
Catalogue No: CHAN10711
Label: Chandos
Series: Svendsen Orchestral Works
Length: 71 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

Awards Issue 2012

Editor's Choice

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Svendsen: Norsk Rapsodi No. 3, Op. 21

Work length8:48

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Neeme Järvi, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

Svendsen: Norsk Rapsodi No. 4, Op. 22

Work length11:54

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Neeme Järvi, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

Svendsen: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 7

Work length19:25

$4.00

$5.20

$7.00

Neeme Järvi, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Truls Mørk

I. Allegro

Track length6:54

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

II. Andante

Track length7:00

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

III. Tempo I

Track length5:31

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Svendsen: Symphony No. 2 in B-Flat Major, Op. 15

Work length31:52

$7.00

$9.10

$12.25

Neeme Järvi, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

I. Allegro

Track length9:31

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

II. Andante sostenuto

Track length7:00

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

III. Intermezzo. Allegro giusto

Track length5:51

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IV. Finale. Andante - Allegro con fuoco - Stretto

Track length9:30

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

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About

Having recently concluded his Halvorsen series, Neeme Järvi continues his Nordic project with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. This is Volume 2 in the survey of orchestral works by the Norwegian composer Johan Svendsen, a contemporary of Grieg.

In the Cello Concerto, the orchestration is perhaps more introvert than what we usually hear in Svendsen’s music.

His Violin Concerto is in the conventional three movements, but here he experimented with the form and designed the concerto in just one movement, enclosing a slow section within a large-scale sonata-allegro structure. The work speaks to the poetic capabilities of the solo instrument, rather than relying on virtuoso passages, and in this respect it demands a cellist capable of bringing out the work’s subtle lyrical qualities. Charged with this task is the Norwegian cellist Truls Mørk, described by The Daily Telegraph as ‘a player of angelic grace and purity of tone’, whose discography spans from a Grammy-award-winning recording of Shostakovich’s Cello Concertos to a critically acclaimed recording of Bach's Suites for Solo Cello.

Svendsen was the first really successful Norwegian symphonist. In fact, Grieg is said to have been so overwhelmed by Svendsen’s first symphony that he was persuaded to dismiss his own, and focus on more intimate genres. Svendsen’s second symphony is as optimistic and youthful as the first, yet perhaps more organically developed and less edgy. The second movement is one of Svendsen’s most captivating and deeply felt pieces, moving through several beautiful melodies to arrive at an intensified climax.

Svendsen also wrote four Norwegian Rhapsodies, of which Nos 3 and 4 are recorded here. The set as a whole draws on seventeen Norwegian folk songs and fiddle tunes. The composer picked most of them from Ludvig Mathias Lindeman’s collection Ældre og nyere norske Fjeldmelodier (Older and Newer Norwegian Mountain Melodies).

Reviews

Awards Issue 2012

[The Cello Concerto] is a fascinating and addictive work that deserves more airings...But Jarvi and his Norwegians are on scintillating form throughout and the Cello Concerto and dark readings of the Symphony are to be treasured.

11th June 2013

volume 2 offers Svendsen at his most original and entertaining. The two Norwegian Rhapsodies see him at his most attractively nationalistic, whilst Truls Mørk is a persuasive advocate of the short, subtle but always deeply lyrical cello concerto.

6th September 2012

Mørk makes the most of the lyrical solo opportunities in the concerto, which telescopes traditional three-movement form into a single sonata movement wrapped around a central intermezzo, while Järvi and the Bergen Philharmonic give the symphony a real sense of momentum, without ever attempting to disguise what it owes to Schumann and Mendelssohn.

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