Tor Mann Conducts Rangström and Larsson

Tor Mann

We've had a few vintage recordings conducted by the fine Swedish maestro Tor Mann recently, courtesy of Maris Kristapsons, and today I'm adding one from my own collection. It is the first symphony by Ture Rangström (1884-1947), made just a few years after the composer's death. As a bonus, I've added the Little Suite for Strings by Lars-Erik Larsson (1908-86) in another early Mann recording. 

Rangström - Symphony No. 1, "August Strindberg in Memoriam"

Ture Rangström

Ture Rangström, a Swedish composer, conductor and critic, wrote four symphonies in common with many other works, and was particularly known for his songs. All his symphonies have been issued at least a few times, but I believe this 1951 reading with the Stockholm Concert Society Orchestra was the first recording of Rangström's symphonic work. (The orchestra is today called the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic.)

That's the composer, not Johnny Depp, on the cover

The composer completed the work in 1914, dedicating it to the memory of the author August Strindberg, who had died a few years before. The composer provided a title for each movement - "Ferment," "Legend," "Troll Rune" and "Battle" - but nevertheless disavowed any program for the work. As the titles may suggest, however, it is a dark-hued, atmospheric composition. The work has been described more as a series of romantic tone poems than a true symphony, but however it might be categorized, it is impressive and expressive.

The location of the 1951 recording is not known, although Decca discographer Philip Stuart suggests it may have been the Stockholm Concert Hall. Whatever the locale, the sound was titled toward the bass, making the work seem even more brooding than the composer may have intended. In his Gramophone review, Lionel Salter complained that "the tuba's every note booms through while the strings lack weight." I've adjusted the sound, and the result is much better balanced, if hardly transparent.

As always, Mann conveys the essence of the work, while never drawing attention to his clever baton wizardry. The Stockholm orchestra plays well, although the attacks are not always in sync.

The download includes contemporary reviews from The Gramophone, New York Times, Saturday Review and The New Records.

Lars-Erik Larsson - Little Suite for Strings

Lars-Erik Larsson

The music of Lars-Erik Larsson has appeared here before in the form of his modernist Violin Concerto, in its first recording, with soloist André Gertler. The Little Suite for Strings, an earlier work, is in the neo-classical style.

In this work, Mann leads the Gothenburg Radio Orchestra. As was the case with the Stockholm ensemble, the Gothenburg orchestra was both a radio and concert entity, switching names as appropriate. 

Mann was the conductor of both ensembles at various times. He led the Gothenburg Symphony from 1925-37 - in succession to Rangström, who apparently wasn't much of a conductor, if the orchestra's website is to be believed. Mann conducted the radio orchestra from 1937 until 1939, when he ran afoul of the board.

Larsson published the Little Suite in 1934, and Mann programmed it that same year with the Gothenburg Symphony; it may well have been the work's premiere.

This recording dates from 1941, and despite the falling out with the orchestra's board, was made with the Gothenburg Radio Orchestra. The Swedish Radio issued the work on its own label, Radiotjänst (Radio Service). I remastered the recording from 78s found on Internet Archive, and the sound is good for the time.

Both these recordings are now remastered in ambient stereo.

A Post-Romanic Seascape from Gösta Nystroem

The sea held a powerful attraction for Swedish composer Gösta Nystroem (1890-1966); fittingly his most famous work is the "Sinfonia del mare" of 1949. Today's post contains the first recording of that work, recorded for the American Dial label in 1950. I've added a song by the composer as a bonus.

Gösta Nystroem

Sinfonia del mare

The LP comes to us courtesy of my friend Maris Kristapsons, who previously sent a gift of the Symphony No. 3 by Nystroem's contemporary Hilding Rosenberg. Both symphonies are performed by the Stockholm Concert Society Orchestra conducted by Tor Mann. As with the Rosenberg, the Nystroem reading is impressive in its concentration and impact.

Ebba Lindqvist

Also like the Rosenberg symphony, Nystroem's work has a literary inspiration: the "Sinfonia del mare" includes a vocal setting of the poem "Det enda" ("The only") by the contemporary Swedish writer Ebba Lindqvist. The poet admits that she would leave her current life behind "for one single breath / of the wind from the sea." Nystroem too was enchanted by the sea and preferred to live on the seashore. I can well appreciate this, having grown up a few steps away from one of the Great Lakes. I still often walk along the shore.

The vocalist in the symphony is Ingrid Eksell, who sang in the 1949 premiere of the work. Sources differ on who led that performance (one says Mann, the other Sixten Eckerberg). Eksell also was known for her performances of Nystroem's songs.

Tor Mann

As with Rosenberg's symphony, Nystroem's composition is in a post-Romantic mode; tonal with a somewhat similar sound world as other conservative modernists. In its austerity, it is reminiscent of Sibelius, but it also bears some resemblance to the late works of Bela Bartók. The symphony is deeply felt and very beautiful. As with Rosenberg, the American critics could be dismissive, however: Arthur Berger in the Saturday Review called the composition "a grave disappointment, grandiose music with all the clichés." (I could not disagree more.) Berger was a composer himself, more inclined to Schoenberg and Stravinsky, although he wrote in several styles during his career. The New York Times critic was more kind to Nystroem; both reviews are in the download.

Nystroem was a painter as well as a composer until he was in his 30s. One of his works is below; the download includes several other examples along with an early portrait of Nystroem by Kurt Jungstedt.

Vårvinterlandskap (Spring-Winter Landscape) - 1916

The production probably originated with Swedish Metronome, with whom Dial had a licensing arrangement, per reseacher D.J. Hoek. Metronome itself issued the symphony on five 78s and LP. The Lindqvist poem is sung in an English translation, which seems odd if the recording had originated with Metronome. (The download contains the Swedish text and the singing translation used on the record.)

David Stone Martin with an Art Tatum cover

The record was the 11th in a series of 18 contemporary classical recordings issued by Dial in 1949-51. Eleven of the 18 came featured works by the Second Viennese School composers. Otherwise, those represented were Bartók, Stravinsky, Alan Hovhaness, Olivier Messiaen and Nystroem. The series concluded with a double LP of John Cage's music. All but the Cage records utilized the David Stone Martin artwork shown at the top of this article. Martin was known for designing cover art for jazz albums, and in fact Dial had begun as a jazz label in the mid-1940s. Producer Ross Russell issued important records by Charlie Parker and other bop musicians, later adding the classical productions for a short but eventful few years.

A Nystroem Song

Manja Povlsen

I was able to turn up one example of Nystroem's songs, although not one performed by Ingrid Eksell. That work is "Forårsnat" (Spring Night), sung by Danish cabaret artist Manja Povlsen accompanied by piano and a string ensemble. The song is a setting of a poem by Mogens Lorentzen, another Swedish writer whose works were adopted by several composers. Like Nystroem, Lorentzen was a painter in his youth, before becoming primarily known for his other artistic accomplishments. I haven't found a text of the poem, so know nothing of its subject except the title.

This 78, issued by the Danish Tono label, likely comes from the 1947-50 period. It was the flip side of Povlsen's cover version of "La vie en rose," the Edith Piaf song that was a 1947 hit in France and a 1950 favorite in the US.

My thanks again to Maris for his generosity in providing the LP. The 78 is courtesy of the Internet Archive.

Tor Mann Conducts Hilding Rosenberg

Hilding Rosenberg (1892-1985) has been called Sweden's first modernist composer, but there are strong links to tradition in his Symphony No. 3, presented here in a 1953 performance led by his contemporary Tor Mann (1894-1974).

When this recording came out, critics were divided. Harold Schonberg called it "pretentious academism." But Alfred Frankenstein praised "the dignity and refinement of the music, its strong lyric character, and its general sense of poise and technical accomplishment."

Far from being "academic" (a pejorative term in secular criticism), the symphony is deeply felt and absorbing to this listener, betraying the influences of Jean Sibelius, Carl Nielsen (perhaps via Rosenberg's teacher Wilhelm Stenhammar) and Paul Hindemith.

Hilding Rosenberg

The Third Symphony bears the title, "The Four Ages of Man." There is no stated program to the work, although a brief exegesis is provided in the cover notes. For its first performance, the composer interspersed spoken excerpts from Romain Rolland's novel Jean Christophe, although those passages did not appeared in the score's initial published version in 1939. Rosenberg revised the score in 1943, then produced a replacement third movement in 1949. This final version is the one heard here.

The composer himself recorded the 1943 edition of the score in 1948, adding the recitations for a Swedish Society release decades later. The final version also has been recorded by the Stockholm Philharmonic twice, in performances conducted by Herbert Blomstedt and Andrew Davis. That ensemble also is heard here under its previous name of the Stockholm Concert Society Orchestra.

Tor Mann

The conductor of this recording, Tor Mann, was the director of the Stockholm orchestra from 1939-59 in its guise as the Swedish Radio Symphony.

The download includes the brief reviews referenced above along with the usual scans and photos.

I am indebted to my friend Maris Kristapsons for his generous gift of this LP. He also sent me a disc of the music of Gösta Nystroem, which will appear here at a later date.