You want to like Rosenberg’s music more than you probably will. It’s finely crafted, and very serious. The Third Symphony (1939) originally appeared with extensive spoken narration, happily jettisoned, and the Sixth, though short, doesn’t take “simple” to mean “simplistic”. There are beautiful moments in both works, but somehow they fail to add up to anything memorable. Rosenberg does not write distinctive tunes, nor are his gestures, his scoring, or his formal plans in any way personal. Most of the time he sounds a bit like Hindemith mixed with Nielsen, with less character than either. Certainly the Gothenburg Symphony plays well, and Mario Venzago effectively captures the admittedly limited expressive range of the music. If you care about Rosenberg (and I presume some people do), this vividly engineered release is wholly recommendable, and you will know if you want it. Others need not apply.
