Scandinavian Music

Greetings,

Periodically the Allen Memorial Library receives gifts containing scores, recordings, and/or music or dance related books. And oftentimes these gifts contain items we hadn't thought to order, but add something really great to the collection nonetheless. A case in point is a recent gift of CDs we received that include a lot of Scandinavian music. Included among them are three CDs from a series entitled "Musica Sveciae." Musica Sveciae is a recorded anthology, financed by a government grant, of Swedish music from ancient times to the beginning of the 20th Century.

Then Svenska Messan [The Swedish Mass]/Johan Helmich Roman (1694-1758)
MD2010 R75 S9

Roman was an important early figure in Swedish music, who served to innovate and reform Swedish church music.


Wilhelm Peterson-Berger (1867-1942)
MD3.1 P47

This disc includes the composer's Third Symphony, Romance for Violin and Orchestra in d minor, and the song cycle "Gullebarn's Lullabies."


Stenhammar Sanger [Songs]
MD1620 S82 S2

Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927) was a great admirer of both Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius, and looked to their music to develop his own Nordic style. The 30 songs on this disc encompass a wide variety of moods, and draw from the literary works of many contemporary Swedish writers, including Bo Bergman (1869-1967).


Also part of the gift is a disc of string quartets by the Swedish composer Hilding Rosenberg:

Hilding Rosenberg String Quartets 2,5, & 8.
MD452 R81 Q2

Rosenberg (1892-1985) was a prolific composer who wrote 14 string quartets, spread over the course of his long life. No. 5 is dedicated to Jean Sibelius.


And finally, we now have the Jean Sibelius Quartet performing string quartets written by contemporary Finnish composers:

MD452 R24 Q2

This disc features Einojuhani Rautavaara's (b. 1928) String Quartet no. 2, op. 12; Joonas Kokkonen's (1921-1996) String Quartet no. 1; and Jouni Kaipainen's (b. 1956) String Quartet no. 3, op. 25.

Please drop by and have a listen.