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
Olivier Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie cover

Olivier Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie

Takashi Harada, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Riccardo Chailly, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Whirling Dance cover

Whirling Dance

Sharon Bezaly, Taipei Chinese Orchestra, Yiu-Kwong Chung
Handel: Concerti grossi Op. 6 (1-6) cover

Handel: Concerti grossi Op. 6 (1-6)

Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin, Bernhard Forck
Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 8 cover

Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 8

Christoph von Dohnányi, Cleveland Orchestra
 City Noir cover

City Noir

David Robertson, Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
Debussy: La Mer, Images cover

Debussy: La Mer, Images

Orchestre National de France, Emmanuel Krivine