Review: Gird Your Loins, The BIS Complete Pettersson Edition Is Here!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ย. 2024
- Pettersson Complete Edition: 17 Symphonies, 3 Concertos for String Orchestra, 2 Violin Concertos, Viola Concerto, Songs, Choral Works, Chamber Music. Various Soloists, Conductors and Orchestras (but mostly the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra under Christian Lindberg and Leif Segerstam). BIS (17 CDs, 4 DVDs with documentaries about the composer)
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I discovered Pettersson in my early 20s when I picked up the DG recording of the 8th that you mentioned at the end. I was hooked and began collecting everything I could. About 10 years ago, I was able to conduct the 7th Symphony here in California. Amazingly (or not surprisingly), it was the first Pettersson symphony to be performed in the US in over 30 years and the first one ever performed on the US west coast. It received a standing ovation, many members of the orchestra thanking me for programming it (difficult though it was to play), and I received emails from audience members telling me how moved they were by hearing it. All this to say, that a work like the 7th and other of his symphonies definitely makes an emotional and visceral impact and should be heard far more often in concerts.
Congratulations to you for your courage and commitment.
I was so happy to reread this this morning. Equally depressing is the f a CT there is so much available online that I didn't even know I had read nor Remembered that I had read Someone has actually conducted Pettersson in yhe United States. Thankyou. I haven't found sn aqueous rich paradise he mentions. It is I agree not bitter music but energetic snd anxiius,agitated not angry but indignant snd heroically outspoken intensity! I dont hear the serialized. It sounds very tonal to me.
These recordings just arrived. I learned about Petterson through your channel and his music sounds like it's right up my alley.
Have fun!
Thanks for the review of Allan Pettersson and congratulations on four years of the channel.❤
Dave, I discovered Pettersson's music (8th Symphony) thanks to one of your video's. Such a discovery! Unbelievably beautiful music...
Thanks!!
Pettersson actually helped me through my sadness, I'm still here!!
Thanks for the alert about the Pettersson box. I collected Pettersson beginning in the LP era (Dorati and Comissiona in symphonies 7, 8, 9, and 10). Later I bought the Segerstam recordings on CD and filled in the ones he didn't record with parts of the CPO series. I may splurge for this BIS box to get all of the extras.
I find that while Pettersson's music is dark, several of the symphonies do end with brief sections of relief. It's as though the sun has come up after the struggle through the darkness -- certainly not a feeling of victory but more one of surviving to struggle again in the future. Your description of them as "defiant" is about as good a one-word summary as I've heard.
Speaking of Comissiona's Baltimore recording of the 8th, I remember the surprise I had coming across that LP in a bin at one of the Baltimore area brick-and-mortar record stores back in the day (I don't remember now whether it was RecordMasters or Record-and-Tape-Collector). It is about time that Universal reissued that recording; it would make a nice disc for DG's "Originals" series. Also, the Philips recording that he did of the 9th in Gothenburg would be good to have on CD.
The difficulty of Pettersson for me was the same as for Havergal Brian - complex themes continually varied. It was worth getting to the point where I could follow the argument, but it was indeed a workout.
However, the Barefoot Songs are incredibly lovely and direct. To anyone thinking of trying Pettersson, I suggest starting there.
Pettersson is vastly simpler than Brian in his handling of thematic material.
@DavesClassicalGuide I was thinking of something like the Symphony No. 3. I agree that he became less complex in his thematic argument as he got older, and the choral symphonies are, for him, almost direct. Brian is more complex in that in his early and middle periods, he works with more ideas per movement than Petterssen, but both still use the continual variation principle, which asks attention from a listener.
I love listening to Pettersson while ironing
Really need to thank David for introducing me to Pettersson. So much beautiful music. In fact, along with Pettersson, Haydn string quartets have become a consuming interest thanks to this channel.
Oddly, I read somewhere years ago a reviewer writing that he'd turned to Pettersson's music for comfort after the death of a friend, but my advice is make sure no sharp knives are in earshot while listening and to be well medicated if you're prone to depression.
There is nothing odd about liking what you can relate to.
Thank you for your continued advocacy of Pettersson's music. Like many I discovered Pettersson via Dorati's recording of his 7th symphony and was immediately sucked into his unique sonic world. I purchased the box as soon as it was released. $170 is not cheap but as you said, who knows how long this will stay in the catalogue given recent BIS sale. I need to be in the right mood for Pettersson but very few composers are as affecting.
Cheers to you, good sir, for continuing to champion Petterson’s music!
I am surprised that I have not explored Pettersson yet. There is so much music out there that it is easy for something good to fall through the cracks. This style of music is precisely the sort of thing that I would like. I enjoy chewing on some dark and difficult music. This set has now been added to my collection, and I am looking forward to it.
I recommend to start with symphony 7. I never thought that this symphony is difficult to listen to, on the contrary. It has moments of very beautiful music.
I became interested in the symphonies of Pettersson through you, actually.
I picked up the CPO set of Pettersson's symphonies about three months ago. Sometimes my timing is spectacular!
No matter. I'm enjoying the set - if "enjoying" is the proper word. I admire the workmanship and am fascinated with the music - but it's thorny stuff - emotionally taxing stuff. I need to spend more time with the symphonies one at a time and not try taking them all in one gulp (one symphony a day for 15 days or whatever being a gulp) - but after hearing the whole set once through, I needed to give him a rest for a bit. Next time I'm going to choose a symphony at random and live with it for a couple of weeks - and then choose another, rinse and repeat - until I get his idiom in my ears.
I've been taking that approach with another composer you've introduced me to - Arnold Bax. Bax is a much easier listen - not as dour and stern, but turbulent in a more accessible way. Lately, sometime during the course of my daily listening, I'll put on Bax's Fourth symphony - and have done for the last several days. I want to be able to identify the music if I heard it on the radio - I mean, I won't because they'll never play it, but if they did, I want to be able to recognize it. After a few more days, I'll move on another piece I'll choose at random and do something similar. I'm not entirely sure if Pettersson's music would lend itself to that treatment - but I might give it a shot. I'll see what sort of psychic weakling I really am, if nothing else.
Finally, thank you for introducing me to both of these symphonists. There are several others too, in fact. I learn so much about such interesting little corners of the repertoire from you. Thank you!
I’ve heard you mention Pettersson a few times in your videos but never heard any so i headed over to Apple Music and found this set and sampled a few hours worth to see if I liked it, which I do. I read a review on Amazon that compared him to a blend of Bruckner Mahler and Schnittke, which from the sample I heard is quite apt I thought. Ice just ordered my copy “while stocks last”. Thanks so much for pointing me in the direction of this remarkable composer.
Dear Mr Hurwitz!
Thank you so very much for making this reveiw of the Allan Pettersson box on BIS.💞🙏🌿💐 His music deserves all attention you and we give him. He compose in a very personal style which I happens to connect whith.🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪
Best wishes Fred from Kristianstad
Excellent Review - Thank You Dave !
I have always thought that Allan Pettersson was highly underrated
Though undeniably dark and brooding and at times Violent, It will deliver
a grand and wonderful Catharsis to the devoted listener
It's already all available for streaming, at least on Presto Classical. They have this stuff ready available to stream, almost from the minute you can order the physical product!
I am late to the comments, but I can only mirror a comment from below that through Dave, I too have discovered Pettersson (the 8th ) and have no doubt that I never would have discovered him otherwise. I "got" the 8th and Pettersson's style from the very opening chords and consider it my number one find from Dave (number 2 finds are the Haydn Symphonies which I always ignored - shame on me). I keep trying to "get" Bruckner every time Dave does a review but keep failing....maybe some day. But Pettersson is the man! The 8th is a special piece for me...especially the Segerstam. The first movement feels like perfect music.....
I was expecting this to just trash him for ten minutes but you did a great job fleshing him out and focusing on his positive qualities which I appreciated. I don't find him as forbidding, but I will say I think a lot of his stuff doesn't repay close and constant attention (he's terrific background music for reading, at least for me)
You are killing my bank account! I just got the Complete Crumb Edition from Bridge, and now this--- ! But 170.00? I caught the Crumb on sale and it was still more than that. So the desire to pull the trigger -- a metaphor quite apropos (Atropos?) to this composer --- on this set increases!
I see this on Spotify which surprises me. I figured it would be exclusive to Apple. Maybe that's a good sign?
You definitely peeked my curiosity, but I need to check out a singleton before I make a commitment to a box.
I have a five year old and a one year old-which is the best Pettersson work for children?
Definitely the 13th Symphony.
@@DavesClassicalGuide - Ouch ! -
Listening to Alan Pettersson is not entertaining but edifying...
No, it's entertaining just like a horror movie is entertaining.
Pettersson is terrific & I love a bit of gloom.
This is just the sort of thing which independent record labels should be doing. Holmboe, too, for example. BIS, if Apple probably emasculates, will be sorely missed. Hyperion too. The majors nowadays are deplorably unenterprising.
Isn't there room for a new independent label financed by contributions from music lovers? But a leader of the calibre of von Bahr, Couzens or Legge would be required.
Like others here, I "discovered" Pettersson through Dave's advocacy of the 8th, a very fine work in a very original idiom. I am keen to dig deeper but am somewhat held back by other members of my household, whose intolerance threshold is certain to be tested by a lot of this dark music!!
I too was introduced to Pettersson's music through Antal Dorati's recording of the 7th Symphony and was immediately seduced. Yes, dark and grim but powerful and moving. I have the CPO complete box, very good performances and recordings on the whole. I am tempted by the new BIS box however particulary for the extra items. Two complete sets of Pettersson symphonies. I must be a masochist.
I thought I might mention the still very much alive Bulgarian composer Emil Tabakov. There is an ongoing symphony cycle on Toccata and here again is a dark and powerful symphonist but writing in a more propulsive style than Pettersson. Like Pettersson I find him consistently gripping. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this composer.
The wonderful BIS Complete Pettersson Edition has one problem. All discs come in paper sleeves with flaps glued in. I am afraid to open the flaps lest the paper sleeves get damaged. This is such an inconvenient design for such an otherwise desirable box. Any advice on how to release safely the glued-in flaps?
This type of design is also used by other labels. This should be discouraged.
Just open them carefully. I had no problems.
I ordered mine
I'm not crazy about some of Lindberg's performances (the 6th is so overproduced as to suck all the emotion from it), but I'll have to think about picking this up anyway...
Hmmm…sounds like a nice challenge!
Pettersson - misery or bust.