Allan Pettersson: Symphony No. 13 (2015)

As Christian Lindberg and the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra progress through the 16 symphonies of Allan Pettersson, they confront some of his densest and darkest music, particularly in his works of the 1970s. The Symphony No. 13 (1976) is a single movement that is unrelenting in its contrapuntal activity, tragic in its expressions of restlessness and violence, and almost brutal in its physical demands on the musicians. Indeed, the work runs without break for over an hour, and the writing is a continuous unfolding of ideas ... Read More

As Christian Lindberg and the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra progress through the 16 symphonies of Allan Pettersson, they confront some of his densest and darkest music, particularly in his works of the 1970s. The Symphony No. 13 (1976) is a single movement that is unrelenting in its contrapuntal activity, tragic in its expressions of restlessness and violence, and almost brutal in its physical demands on the musicians. Indeed, the work runs without break for over an hour, and the writing is a continuous unfolding of ideas that are in conflict with few moments of resolution, only to be replaced by more episodes of severe but ever-changing counterpoint. Yet this knotty work holds a kind of fascination, because the slow but steady generation of ideas has an overall consistency that makes sense, especially after repeated hearings, and once the listener has absorbed Pettersson's abrasive harmonies and angular melodic lines, the piece makes sense, though perhaps more through its own momentum than through any... Read Less