Stenhammar: Excelsior!; Symphony No. 2 (1984)

For devotees of the fin de siècle Scandinavian symphonies, Neeme Järvi and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra's 1979 world-premiere recording of Wilhelm Stenhammar's First Symphony was incredibly exciting. For one thing, the work itself, while not great, illuminated a previously unknown phase in the composer's career. And for another, given Järvi's already pronounced proclivity to record complete symphonic cycles, his recording of the youthful First promised a recording of the mature Second, one of the glories of its time ... Read More

For devotees of the fin de siècle Scandinavian symphonies, Neeme Järvi and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra's 1979 world-premiere recording of Wilhelm Stenhammar's First Symphony was incredibly exciting. For one thing, the work itself, while not great, illuminated a previously unknown phase in the composer's career. And for another, given Järvi's already pronounced proclivity to record complete symphonic cycles, his recording of the youthful First promised a recording of the mature Second, one of the glories of its time and place. That promise was fulfilled in this 1983 recording of the Second coupled with the Overture Excelsior! While the Overture, like the First Symphony, is worth hearing for its exuberance and enthusiasm, the Second is mandatory listening for any listener who reveres the symphonies of Sibelius and Nielsen. Like his contemporaries, the Swedish composer's youthful romanticism had grown into a more direct and austere art, and in his four-movement Second, Stenhammar's harmonic... Read Less