Johan Svendsen ORCHEstRAL WORKS VO L . 2 Truls Mørk cello Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra Neeme Järvi Johan Svendsen, 1870s Svendsen, Johan Lithograph by Alfred Fosterud / National Library of Norway, Picture Collection Johan Severin Svendsen (1840 – 1911) Orchestral Works, Volume 2 1 Norwegian Rhapsody No. 3, Op. 21 8:43 Allegro molto – Allegro moderato – Più vivo – Tempo I – Andante – Allegro – Più vivo – Stretto 2 Norwegian Rhapsody No. 4, Op. 22 11:47 Andante – Un poco più lento – Allegro moderato – Allegretto quasi moderato – Andante – Allegro – Presto Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 7* 19:18 in D major • in D-Dur • en ré majeur Emil Hegar gewidmet 3 Allegro – 6:54 4 Andante – 7:00 5 Tempo I 5:24 Symphony No. 2, Op. 15 31:56 3 in B flat major • in B-Dur • en si bémol majeur Herrn Consul Dr F.G. Schulz gewidmet 6 I Allegro 9:26 7 II Andante sostenuto 6:56 8 III Intermezzo. Allegro giusto 5:46 9 IV Finale. Andante – Allegro con fuoco – Stretto 9:31 TT 72:09 Truls Mørk cello* Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra Melina Mandozzi leader Neeme Järvi Johan Svendsen: Orchestral Works, Volume 2 Johan Svendsen (1840 – 1911) was the first new works earned him great success and really successful Norwegian symphonist. In respect as an up-and-coming star composer. terms of background, personality, and musical genres, he was the counterpart of his close Cello Concerto in D major, Op. 7 friend Edvard Grieg (1843 – 1907). Grieg was Svendsen continued his search for a overwhelmed by Svendsen’s first symphony, personal voice as a composer through the which may have been decisive in leading Grieg rich landscape of European art music. to dismiss his own symphony and focus on He was especially keen on the new trends more intimate genres. represented by Berlioz, Liszt, and Wagner, Svendsen grew up in the poor quarters whose music would have a great influence on of Christiania (now Oslo) as the son of a his subsequent works. After completing the musician. At the age of fourteen he enlisted Violin Concerto in A major, Op. 6 according in the military band and became a capable to the traditional three-movement scheme, performer on several wind instruments. he experimented more freely with form in the His father taught him the violin, which one-movement Cello Concerto in D major, became his primary instrument. His early Op. 7, which was completed in November capability as a performer on multiple 1870. Indeed, it follows a traditional instruments certainly had a great impact on Allegro – Andante – Allegro pattern, but the remarkable skills he was later to manifest without a break between the movements. as an orchestrator and a conductor. Furthermore, the firstAllegro consists of an By the time he graduated from the Leipzig exposition and a development section, yet Conservatory in 1867 he had completed no recapitulation, before Svendsen takes several ambitious works, among them the us into the Andante. This slow movement String Octet, Op. 3 and the Symphony in foreshadows his most performed and D major, Op. 4 – far more mature and famous work, the Romanze for violin and complex than his earlier compositions. These orchestra, Op. 26 (1882), in terms of form, 5 key, and metre and also demonstrates melodic instrument. The orchestration is more similarities. It leads in turn to the closing introvert than what we usually hear in part, which serves as the true recapitulation Svendsen’s music. The concerto as a whole of the opening Allegro. In other words, the unfolds a kind of endless melody, perhaps finale is not really an independent movement. inspired by Wagner, rather than engaging Hence, the work is on the one hand a in a cat-and-mouse game between soloist concerto in three movements, yet on the and orchestra. In this respect it demands a other, just one large sonata allegro enfolding a cellist capable of bringing out not only subtle slow intermezzo. It is likely that Liszt’s Piano lyrical details but the full expressive range of Concerto in E flat (1857) served as a model what can appear to be rather homogeneous for this formal experiment. musical material. In the concerto literature it The Concerto was dedicated to the cellist is nevertheless quite original, especially with Emil Hegar, a student friend of Svendsen’s, respect to its form. who premiered it on 16 March 1871 with the Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Symphony No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 15 Ferdinand David. The unconventional form Written ten years after the first symphony, and limited use of virtuoso passages drew Svendsen’s Symphony No. 2 in B flat major muted acclaim from the critics, some of was completed in May 1876 and premiered whom held the solo part to be rather boring, on 14 October that year in Christiania. It for both performers and listeners. The critic proved an immediate success, warmly received in the Musikalisches Wochenblatt, however, both by audience and critics. Svendsen was stated that compared to the abundance of thirty-six years old and at the peak of his interesting ideas in the Violin Concerto, career as a composer. The second symphony the Cello Concerto showed pleasant artistic is as optimistic and youthful in spirit as restraint. the first, yet perhaps even more organically Certainly, the Cello Concerto lacks the conceived, and less edgy. The first movement, clear-cut contrasting elements so typical especially, is calmer and more rounded, of most of Svendsen’s works. It does not characterised by a full-bodied, singing main lean on virtuosic displays, speaking rather theme that is presented in the tenor register. to the poetic, cantabile quality of the solo The second movement is one of Svendsen’s 6 most captivating and deeply felt pieces. also suggest that the most important tonal Within a free and imaginative form, the spheres of the Finale – even the excursions music moves uninterrupted through several into the most remote keys – emerged early beautiful melodies, which are later combined in the compositional process, and long contrapuntally in an intensified climax. The before the themes themselves materialised. scherzo, next, is entitled Intermezzo and So, metaphorically, we may say that the simulates the halling, a Norwegian folk dance musical drama that takes place in the in 2 / 4. Svendsen again adopts an imaginative development section, in the composer’s mind form freely based on the traditional scherzo. precedes the exposition. In other words, A study of his sketchbooks reveals the catchy melodies that Svendsen gives us significant productivity during the mid-1870s, at the beginning of the movement are the for they contain drafts of many projects results of the battles he fights in the middle simultaneously. It is generally believed and towards the end of it. Furthermore, a that Svendsen composed rather easily; thematic relationship between the first and his sketchbooks, however, suggest a more fourth movements, which to our ears is rather complicated situation. It is quite certain that subtle, the sketchbooks show to be very clear. Svendsen began composing the symphony Interestingly, after the premiere the highly in 1875, perhaps even earlier. No sketches enthusiastic reviewer in Aftenposten questioned for the first two movements have survived, only one thing: the quality of the Finale yet numerous pages for the third and fourth compared to that of the preceding movements. movements share space with sketches for Could he hear how Svendsen had fought with other projects. These sketches show that it? Svendsen experienced a struggle over the Finale. Even the exploration of the main Norwegian Rhapsodies Nos. 3 and 4 theme occupies many pages. Interestingly, Svendsen had already orchestrated Liszt’s the sketches make clear that the thematic Hungarian Rhapsodies Nos 2 and 6 when material for the Finale was directly developed he embarked on a new project in 1876: from that of the Intermezzo – a thematic four Norwegian Rhapsodies for orchestra, relationship that the ear will find it hard to which were written during the same capture in the final product. The sketches productive period as Symphony No. 2. 7 Seventeen Norwegian folksongs and fiddle By the end of his thirties Svendsen seems to tunes are presented one by one like pearls on have experienced a decline in inspiration and a string throughout the four works. Svendsen productivity as a composer. He complained picked most of the melodies from Ludvig about this in several letters to Grieg around Mathias Lindeman’s collection Ældre og 1880. In 1883 he moved to Copenhagen to nyere norske Fjeldmelodier (Older and Newer take up the post as chief conductor at the Norwegian Mountain Melodies). A significant Royal Theatre. From his early forties until compositional method adopted in all the his death in 1911 he completed only a few rhapsodies is the so-called ‘changing background occasional works. technique’, by means of which the melody © 2012 B. Morten Christophersen is repeated unchanged over an instrumental accompaniment that is constantly varied. Especially in the slow sections the diatonic The reputation of Truls Mørk as a cellist melodies are presented against a backdrop of of rare intensity and grace has been built advanced chromatic harmony – a technique also on performances throughout the world. A highly developed in Grieg’s music. celebrated artist, he performs with the most Rhapsodies Nos 1 – 3, presumably distinguished orchestras, including the Berlin completed in Christiania in 1876, were and Munich Philharmonic orchestras, Royal probably all composed rather quickly, although Concertgebouw Orchestra, Philharmonia sketches for No. 3 indicate that its composition Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Staatskapelle process was interrupted several times. The Dresden, and Symphonieorchester des Fourth Rhapsody was completed in 1877 in Bayerischen Rundfunks.