The music of Swedish composer Tor Aulin (1866-1914) is slowly being resurrected from the purgatory of long-forgotten Romantic composers, thanks to the stalwart advocacy of violinist Tobias Ringborg and conductor Niklas Willén, as well as the financial support from the composer’s own grandchildren that made this disc possible. Ringborg and Willén already have recorded Aulin’s Third violin concerto in 1997 for Naxos, so this Sterling CD fills the gap and provides a convenient introduction to some enjoyable music.
Both the Concert Piece and the Violin Concerto No. 2 will hold no surprises to the uninitiated: they possess the neat structure of Mendelssohn coupled with the tuneful “romantic” ardor of Bruch, Dvorák, and Tchaikovsky, all replete with the sort of taxing virtuoso turns expected of a composer who himself was a noted violinist. Ringborg seizes these works with abandon and commitment, occasionally letting his vibrato get a bit out of hand in the process. As conventional and schmaltzy as these two works sound, they easily could be interchanged with some of the more famous concertos of their day, and the energetic tarantella finale of the second concerto is sure to keep your feet tapping.
Written toward the end of Aulin’s short life, the twin dance sets quickly reveal themselves as the true gems of this disc. Based largely on Swedish folk music, these light-hearted works have all the provincial charm of Dvorák’s Slavonic Dances or Brahms’ Hungarian Dances but boast a sort of neo-classical elegance that foreshadows Stravinsky’s Pulcinella or Respighi’s Gli Uccelli.
The three Gotland dances feature a spirited Allegro full of leaping triadic motifs and scales, a wistful Andante reminiscent of Grieg (with a wonderfully elegiac oboe solo), and a stately waltz that closes the set. The Swedish dances expand further on the vivacious melodies of the region with colorful orchestration–all four of them equally salubrious and witty and played with obvious relish by the Gävle orchestra. Definitely worth hearing.
