Johan Svendsen - Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2

"For most people Norwegian music begins and end with Grieg, and in so far as Svendsen is thought of at all, it is as the composer of the 'Carnival in Paris', the 'Norwegian Arists' Carnival' and a handful of other lighter pieces. In fact Svendsen was all the things that Grieg was not. Grieg wrote with great individuality for the piano and the human voice, while, Opp. 23 and 24 apart, Svendsen wrote for neither. As befits a conductor, Svendsen was a master of the orchestra, for which Grieg had no particular flair. Indeed when he heard the First Symphony of Svendsen, Grieg was the first to sing its praises, and its excellence made him more than ever aware of the inadequacies of his own youthful Symphony in C minor (1865). After this he made no further attempt to scale symphonic heights. Yet Svendsen's symphony, like Grieg's, was a student work written while he was still at the Leipzig Conservatory and a pupil of Reinecke. As a boy he grew up in Christiana (as Oslo was then known) with music around him. His father was a bandmaster and by the time he was fifteen he was already an accomplished violinist and played the flute and clarinet as well. He undertook a long tour of Scotland, Iceland and the Faeroes in 1867, returning to Christiana to conduct his symphony later that year. He went to Paris the following year and earned a livelihood as an orchestral player, and writing his Violin Concerto, Op. 6 and other pieces. The 'Carnival in Paris' (1872) was written in Bayreuth of all places. By this time Svendsen had given up the violin owing to problems with his left hand and by the early 1870s, he had been drawn into the Liszt-Wagner circle. He returned briefly to Norway but gave up the direction of the Christiana Orchestra in 1877, which he had shared with Grieg, becoming more of what we would now call a 'star' conductor. He appeared in London, Paris, Leipzig and then, in 1883, he went to Copenhagen as conductor of the Royal Danish Orchestra, where he remained until ill-health forced his retirement in 1908. Alas, the creative fires burnt themselves out long before that, and after the famous 'Romance' in G major for violin and orchestra, he more or less gave up composing.

"Svendsen's grounding was in the Leipzig school and Mendelssohn and Schumann loomed large on his musical horizon. Even though he and Grieg were good friends, Svendsen did not involve himself in the folksong movement to anywhere near the saem extent as had Grieg, and the four 'Norwegian Rhapsodies' were probably as close as he ever came to it. All the same there is a distinctive Norwegian feel to his melodic ideas. His basic sympathies remained predominantly classical and he continued to work within sonata form structures. Three of the four movements of the First Symphony are in sonata form. Svendsen succeeded in fusing the legacy of the Viennese classics with the Norwegian folk tradition. His invention blends liveliness and exuberance with a vein of poetic fantasy not unworthy of the best Grieg. Together with the four symphonies of Berwald, Svendsen's two (1867, 1876) are the finest to appear in Scandinavia before Sibelius.

"The D major Symphony, Op. 4, is a work of astonishing assurance and freshness - its musical processes are easily followed as are those of its successor. Between the two symphonies come the Cello Concerto, Op. 7 and the tone-poem, 'Zorahayde', Op. 11. The Second Symphony was completed towards the end of his five year spell (1872-77) in the Norwegian capital; the manuscript is dated 'Hedghehaugen, near Christiana, May 1876', and it was his last large-scale work. As Grieg said of him in 1882, he is in my opinion 'the greatest arist (as opposed to -poet-) that the North possesses and one of the few great spirits in Europe'. It is good to see these inspired and superbly crafted symphonies coming back into their own." (Robert Layton, 1988. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Oslo-Filharmonien, Mariss Jansons

1. Symphony No. 1 In D Major, Op. 4: I. Molto Allegro

2. Symphony No. 1 In D Major, Op. 4: II. Andante

3. Symphony No. 1 In D Major, Op. 4: III. Allegretto Scherzando

4. Symphony No. 1 In D Major, Op. 4: IVa. Finale: Maestoso

5. Symphony No. 1 In D Major, Op. 4: IVb. Allegro Assai Con Fuoco

6. Symphony No. 2 In B-Flat Major, Op. 15: I. Allegro

7. Symphony No. 2 In B-Flat Major, Op. 15: II. Andante Sostenuto

8. Symphony No. 2 In B-Flat Major, Op. 15: III. Intermezzo: Allegro Giusto

9. Symphony No. 2 In B-Flat Major, Op. 15: IVa. Finale: Andante -

10. Symphony No. 2 In B-Flat Major, Op. 15: IVb. Allegro Con Fuoco

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