Syms 1/2

It was Johann Svendsen's misfortune to be overshadowed by two other Scandinavian composers who admired his work as composer and conductor - Grieg and Nielsen. The neglect of his music is undeserved, to say the least: performances as compelling as these reveal Svendsen as an extremely gifted symphonist, one with a gift for memorable musical material, formal balance, rhythmic vitality, and sustained inspiration. No wonder that his good friend Grieg withdrew his own symphony after hearing Svendsen's First.
Grieg and Svendsen were, in some ways, complementary figures: while the former focused on piano and chamber music, Svendsen wrote mostly orchestral music, though there are some delightful chamber music pieces for strings. Svendsen's composing career was brief - his astonishingly assured First Symphony was, in fact, a student exercise from his days at the Leipzig Conservatory - and he increasingly turned to conducting (with great success) as his inspiration dried up.
As a result, most of his music is from the early part of his musical career, and breathes a youthful spirit, sunny and full of joie-de-vivre, the obverse of the darker world of Sibelius. Indeed, Svendsen is like a Scandinavian equivalent of Dvorak, for along with a gift for memorable melodies, both composers used the orchestra in ways such as to reflect their countries' musical traditions: Svendsen's orchestration is full of Scandinavian touches, just as Dvorak's orchestra sounds decidedly Czech. Though Svendsen's involvement with folk music was negligible when compared with Grieg's, there are charming hints of folk music, too - sample the third movement of the Second Symphony. Svendsen's ability to think in long-breathed musical paragraphs is evident from the first movement of the Second Symphony and in the slow movements of both works. The finales, too, sustain the energy levels and inspiration of the other movements, and have a concision and rhythmic vitality that was much admired by Nielsen.
Svendsen is clearly superior to other Scandinavian symphonists such as Berwald or Gade, and deserves to be much better known. Since hearing these symphonies, I have hunted for more Svendsen, almost always to my delighted surprise. One can only be thankful to Mariss Jansons for conducting such wonderful recordings with the Oslo Philharmonic, whose superb form in this recording is ably captured by the EMI engineers. I marginally prefer this set to Neeme Jarvi's recordings of these pieces, which also come with a bonus piece for strings. I am unfamiliar with the Naxos recording of these symphonies, or that of Thomas Dausgaard, another excellent conductor whose set of Svendsen symphonies has been much admired. I can, however, recommend this set wholeheartedly - it has given me endless pleasure. You will probably end up looking for more of Svendsen's delightful but unknown gems!

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