Allan Pettersson: Symphonies 5 & 7 cover

Allan Pettersson: Symphonies 5 & 7

Composer
Released

Paralyzed by a debilitating case of rheumatoid arthritis, the Swedish composer Allan Petterson was largely confined to his cramped apartment in a loud industrial neighborhood of Stockholm while writing his Seventh Symphony in 1967. The psychological toll of his surroundings and near-complete isolation courses through the work. A hulking 40-minute monolith, the Symphony is driven by a menacing two-note motif that, like a Rothko color field painting, sluggishly oozes bleak grays and blacks across a colossal orchestral canvas. Christian Lindberg’s 2018 recording with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, released as part of an ongoing effort to record all of Pettersson’s orchestral works for Bis, reveals unexpected tenderness in the Symphony’s broad brushstrokes, aspiring to what the composer called the ultimate aim of his music: “to rediscover the song once sung by the soul.” 

Zev Kane

Suggestions
John Corigliano: Circus Maximus; Gazebo Dances cover

John Corigliano: Circus Maximus; Gazebo Dances

University of Texas Wind Ensemble
Sleeper’s Prayer: Choral Music from North America cover

Sleeper’s Prayer: Choral Music from North America

Benjamin Nicholas, Choir of Merton College, Oxford
Medtner: Songs cover

Medtner: Songs

Justina Gringyte, Rodion Pogossov, Ekaterina Siurina, Nikolaj Didenko, Iain Burnside
Shostakovich: Cello Concertos cover

Shostakovich: Cello Concertos

Vasily Petrenko, Truls Mørk
Shostakovich: Cello Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 cover

Shostakovich: Cello Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

Heinrich Schiff, Maxim Shostakovich
Debussy: Pelléas & Mélisande cover

Debussy: Pelléas & Mélisande

London Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle
Arvo Pärt: Lente cover

Arvo Pärt: Lente

Concerto Copenhagen, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tõnu Kaljuste