Kurt Atterberg
Barocco (suite No. 5 for chamber orchestra, op. 23) (1923)
1. Entrata
2. Sarabanda
3. Gavotta
4. Pastorale e Gagliarda
5. Siciliana
6. Giga
Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra op. 57 (1960)
7. Bar 1
8. Bar 171
9. Bar 268
10. Bar 342
11. Bar 434
Amus Herstin Andersson, violin
Mats Levin, violoncello
Sinfonia per archi op. 53 (1951-53; 1955)
12. 1. Con moto
13. 2. Allegro molto
14. 3. Tranquillo
15. 4. Allegro molto e ritmico
Kurt Atterberg ©
The Swedish composer Kurt Atterberg was born in Gothenburg on 12 December 1887. He was no wunderkind, as he began to play the cello only at the age of 15, mostly on his own, and he also made some childish attempts at composing. After leaving school he went on to the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm when he was 20. Shortly thereafter he composed his opus 1, Rhapsody for piano and orchestra, a brilliant piece of music still performed occasionally. He realized that he had a natural gift for composing but had no schooling in the subject until he began his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in 1910 under the old-fashioned Wagnerian, Andreas Hallén, whose tuition he highly disliked.
Nevertheless, he was now ready to meet the world. And so he did! In 1911 he graduated with a civil engineerâs degree, in 1912 he made his debut as a conductor when the Gothenburg Orchestral Society played his first symphony op. 6, a year when he was also employed at the Swedish Patent and Registration Office in Stockholm and in 1913 his music was played abroad for the first time, his first symphony, and in Stuttgart. It was a flying start in a number of professions, although he had already reached the age of 26. He remained at the Patent Office rising to ever higher positions, and when finally he was released after 56 years of service in 1968 at 81 years of age, he had been the principal clerk for some 30 years. In 1919 he started a career writing music reviews in Stockholms-Tidningen and held this position until 1957, during this time writing about all and every concert of interest, and becoming embroiled in quarrels with his fellow composer/reviewer Peterson-Berger.
During the early 1920s he was instrumental in creating STIM (Swedish Performing Rights Society for Music) and FST (Swedish Composerâs Society) of which he was chairman for many years. He also was the president for CISAC (a global cooperation of music organisations), partaking in innumerable conferences, and, as such, very active in the politics of European music. In addition, he was the secretary of the Royal Academy of Music, and used his technical skills to develop new methods of copying scores and parts. How he was able to find time for composing is a mystery! But he wrote five great operas, all of which were performed, many of them also abroad (Aladdin 2017, in Braunschweig); nine attractive symphonies (all recorded many times; the Columbia-prizewinning No. 6, 1927, was recorded by both Beecham and Toscanini!) and other symphonic pieces, solo concertos for violin, cello, piano, and horn. He was at an early stage
commissioned to write music for the theatre, and between 1913 and 1927 he composed some 20 incidental scores. The first was Jefta, that became Suite No. 1 âOrientaleâ. In 1916 he was engaged as Kapellmeister at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, and it became a natural thing for him to be given the first option of arranging old music or composing new pieces for the theatreâs performances. He wrote music for plays such as The Old Play of Everyone, Androcles and the Lion (Shaw), Fedra (Racine), Sister Beatrice (Maeterlinck) that became the beloved Suite No. 3., the music to Turandot (Gozzi) that was transformed to Suite no 4, while Hassan (Flecker) became Suite No. 6, and he wrote music for great Shakespeare dramas such as Hamlet, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, The Storm (ended as an opera), Antony and Cleopatra (Suite No. 7), Julius Cesar and Macbeth (these two for radio), and The Winterâs Tale, from the music to Suite No.
5 which is recorded on this CD.
RELEASE DATE: APRIL 2019
CATALOGUE NUMBER: DACOCD 836
EAN: 5709499836002
