Download Atterberg Kurt - Sheva Collection

Kurt Atterberg
Wikipedia
KURT ATTERBERG (1887-1974 Sweden) had a distinctly unusual career. An electrical
engineer by profession, he was a member of the respected Swedish Patent Office, whilst
also having considerable influence on musical life in Stockholm and indeed throughout
Sweden, as conductor, composer and journalist. Accordingly he frequently received honours
and rewards for his work. His compositions breathe the spirit of tradition spanning Grieg to
Sibelius. Though respected within his own country, his retrospectiveness has meant that
Atterberg has remained almost unknown in the outside world. His is the music of a
"Swedish, second-generation, late romantic".!
The Suite for Violin, Viola and String Orchestra op. 19 no. 1, composed in 1917 is a typical
example of his extensive compositional legacy. It was based on incidental music written for
Maeterlinck's play Sister Beatrice and is the third of his nine works in this genre. In essence
a double concerto for string orchestra, the composer sees it in the continuing tradition of
orchestral suites taken up and further developed in the 19th century by Edvard Grieg
amongst others. It is better for the listener not to make comparisons with contemporaries
such as Schöberg, Bartok or Stravinsky, but rather with Max Reger or Hans Pfitzner, those
composers who continued, uninterrupted, the late romantic tradition.!
Accepting this approach, there is much delight to be found in the many subtleties of this
music: the heartfelt, lyrical melancholy of both the opening Prelude and following Pantomim,
and the gently brooding "Nordic waltz" of Vision.!
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SHEVA 91! !
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Suite for Violin, Viola and Strings!