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CHAN 9654 Front.qxd 24/10/07 12:31 pm Page 1 Chan 9654 Volume 2 CHANDOS Paradiso Swedish a cappella Stefan Parkman Academy Chamber Choir of Uppsala Stefan Parkman CHAN 9654 BOOK.qxd 24/10/07 12:33 pm Page 2 Paradiso – Swedish a cappella, Knut Håkanson (1887–1929) Volume 2 Tre Karlfeldtskörer, Op. 39 (Three Karlfeldt Partsongs) 10:29 10 1 Brusala 4:34 Lars Johan Werle (b. 1926) 11 2 Stjärngossar 2:11 trees* 10:08 ‘Starboys’ 1 1 !blac – 0:57 12 3 Kornknarr, sänghalm* 3:39 2 2 trees – 2:41 Corncrake, bedstraw 3 3 (sitting in a tree-) – 1:48 4 4 now all the fingers of this tree(darling)have 4:42 Lars Edlund (b. 1922) Paradiso 21:04 Ingvar Lidholm (b. 1921) 13 1 Come l’augello* 10:39 from Ett drömspel (A Dream Play) 6:58 Just as the bird 5 Troget och milt* 2:20 Ulrika Eckstrand soprano . Leif Aruhn-Solén tenor Faithfully and gently 14 2 La bellezza di Beatrice 4:51 6 Vindarnas klagan 4:33 The beauty of Beatrice The lament of the winds 15 3 O quanto è corto 5:30 How brief, alas Tre Strindbergsvisor (Three Strindberg Songs) 6:56 TT 56:02 7 1 Välkommen åter, snälla sol 1:06 Welcome back, sweet sun 8 2 Sommarafton 3:06 Academy Chamber Choir of Uppsala Summer evening Håkan Hagegård baritone* 9 3 Ballad* 2:38 Stefan Parkman 2 3 CHAN 9654 BOOK.qxd 24/10/07 12:33 pm Page 4 Ingvar Lidholm contributed much to the winds). The other excerpt from the opera Swedish a cappella, Volume 2 renewal of Swedish musical life after the presented here, ‘Troget och milt’ (Faithfully Second World War. Together with his colleagues and gently), is a lyrical scene where the Officer, Sven-Erik Bäck and Karl-Birger Blomdahl he was who for the whole of his life has waited in The Swedish tradition of singing in mixed I have never made music which so moved me at the frontline of Swedish modern tonal vain for his fiancee, an actress to come out of choirs, which goes back to the middle of the from the heart – I felt like singing a swan-song language, but compared to them Lidholm the stage door declares his love for her as an nineteenth century, has grown during later about the joys and sufferings of the whole of my showed more of a gift for lyrical expression, old man. Håkan Hagegård created this role at generations into a popular movement of great miserable life. and with his interest in twelve-tone techniques, the premiere in Stockholm. Both of these importance. According to statistics, one tenth Lars Edlund engaged both in musical he developed a personal romantic tone. He is choral numbers were written many years of the nine million inhabitants of Sweden sing modernism and in early music during his one of the rather few Swedish composers to before the opera was finished. in a choir, and Swedish choirs have a strong student years in the 1940s, and he worked as have set texts by August Strindberg. The The Tre Strindbergsvisor (Three Strindberg position in international music life, as do those a teacher of music theory at the Stockholm language of the latter is often very dynamic songs) are part of the collection ‘A-cappella from the other Nordic countries. Most of the Conservatoire for a long time. He is one of and full of tension, and does not lend itself bok’ that Lidholm composed over the period pieces on this disc date from the second half Sweden’s most prominent choral composers; easily to being set to music, even though 1957–9, consisting of choir works of of the twentieth century, a time when prolific and versatile, known not least for his Strindberg was heavily interested in music progressive difficulty. Two of the poems contemporary compositional techniques made religious music. The three songs on texts by himself. However, two Swedish operas have chosen by Lidholm, ‘Välkommen åter, snälla their way into the domestic choral tradition. Dante Alighieri were written in the 1990s. The been created on Strindberg dramas, both of sol’ and ‘Sommarafton’, show a lesser-known, Knut Håkanson belonged to a numerous words are taken from the third part of the them most successfully: Ture Rangström’s gentle and idyllic side of Strindberg. In the generation of Swedish composers who ‘Divina Comedia’, Paradiso, where the author’s Kronbruden (The Crown Bride) and Lidholm’s Ett latter, the composer uses twelve-tone experienced the musical innovations of alter ego is guided by his beloved, Beatrice, drömspel (A Dream Play), premiered in 1992. technique, but still does not refrain from the Richard Strauss, Debussy and others, and towards the highest levels of Paradise. In the latter, Strindberg moves beyond the sweetness of consonance. often tried to fuse features from their music Dante uses a very vivid metaphorical limits of reality and logic. The daughter of the Lars Johan Werle attracted international into a nationally-minded musical style. language to depict the divine things which he god Indra has come down to earth to acquire attention in 1960 with a piece for string Håkanson was known for trying to synthesize approaches, led by Beatrice, who is herself a knowledge of the conditions of human life, quartet. He has composed important choral Bach-influenced counterpoint with Swedish representative of heaven. He stops before the and thereby becomes caught up in music and has achieved a reputation for his folk music. His three choral pieces to poems pure beauty that he meets, declaring that even relationships and situations that progressively operas. In the musical Animalen, he has by the very popular Erik Axel Karlfeldt (a the most inspired human words cannot restrict her emotionally and physically. The displayed a subtle humour, compatible with the Nobel Prize winner in 1931) were composed describe it. The Human and Divine mix in message of the drama is summed up in the libretto by Tage Danielsson. Something of the in 1929, a few months before the composer’s Paradiso. Edlund’s setting is in a dissonant repeated words: ‘Human beings are to be same spirit permeates trees. The texts by premature death. He considered the song style and contains elements of bel canto and pitied’, and this is also what is expressed in E.E. Cummings love poems; light in tone, ‘Brusala’ to be his most valuable composition. madrigalisms in its dense structure, which fuses one of the choral numbers pieces from the serious in subject. Werle commented on this He wrote about it to a friend: the lyrical and dramatic aspects of the poetry. opera, ‘Vindarnas klagan’ (The lament of the text: 4 5 CHAN 9654 BOOK.qxd 24/10/07 12:33 pm Page 6 The economy of words, the unconventional The Academy Chamber Choir of Uppsala ensembles. He performs regularly with the Swedish Radio Choir, the Rundfunkchor, Berlin punctuation, the sudden changes in time and (Uppsala Akademiska Kammarkör) was founded Swedish Radio Choir, and often works with and the BBC Singers, teaches choral space etc., give a kind of openness to the in 1957 by the musicologist Folke Bohlin, and Stockholm Opera and the Drottningholm conducting at the Royal College of Music in poem, which stimulates everyone’s emotional since then has been closely associated with Festival Opera and Ballet. Stockholm and gives master-classes in imagination. Uppsala University. It has been directed by As a freelance conductor, Stefan Parkman Scandinavia and elsewhere. He also appears There is a poetic and ingenious quality about Sweden’s foremost choral conductors, from appears with numerous orchestras and as a soloist, primarily as the Evangelist, in his music, and it forms its own niche professor Eric Ericson through Dan-Olof ensembles in Scandinavia, including the Royal baroque oratorios and passions. In 1997 somewhere between modern ‘art’ music and Stenlund and Anders Ely to Stefan Parkman, its Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Opera Stefan Parkman was made a Knight of the popular music. It is an appealing showpiece conductor since 1983. The Academy Chamber in Stockholm. He regularly conducts the Danneborg. for a choir with a soloist who want a Choir of Uppsala rapidly built a reputation as challenge, without becoming too serious. one of Sweden’s leading mixed choirs with a broad repertoire, from Rennaissance to © 1998 Anders Edling contemporary music, and stylistic range, from a cappella to choral works with orchestra. The Håkan Hagegård was born in Sunne, Sweden Choir has toured Europe and the USA and has and began his musical training at the made a number of recordings. Municipal School of Music in Karlstad. He continued his education at the Royal College Stefan Parkman was born in 1952. At the of Music in Stockholm before going on to the Royal College of Music in Stockholm he Mozarteum in Salzburg. He then studied with studied singing, as well as choral conducting Tito Gobbi in Florence and Gerald Moore in with Eric Ericson and orchestral conducting London. Håkan Hagegård’s career spans over with Jorma Panula. He was director of the three decades. His subtle and aristocratic voice Boys’ Choir at Uppsala Cathedral from 1974 has been heard throughout the world’s most to 1988, and conductor of the Royal distinguished opera houses and concert halls Philharmonic Chorus in Stockholm from 1985 including Carnegie Hall, the Glyndebourne to 1993. Since 1983 he has been conductor Opera Festival, Covent Garden and La Scala. of the Academy Chamber Choir of Uppsala. In He made his opera debut in 1968 as 1989 he was appointed chief conductor of Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with the the Danish National Radio Choir, having been Stockholm Opera and made his Metropolitan a regular guest since 1983.

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