This is fantastically beautiful music: luscious, tuneful, evocative, but never decadent or devoid of energy and purpose. The Sinfonia for strings began life as a quintet, but it sounds splendid for large ensemble. Its four relatively compact movements last about half an hour and are suffused with that “Nordic melancholy” that makes so much of Atterberg’s music appealing. There’s plenty of vigor too, particularly in the second-movement scherzo and finale. Adagio amoroso was Atterberg’s last orchestral work, completed when he was 80, and it also is primarily wistful in character. Both the Intermezzo and Prelude & Fugue are occasional pieces, the former big-boned and hymn-like, the latter slight and generically nice.
Most delightful of all is the Suite No. 7, a string arrangement of incidental music to Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. This is marvelous stuff, worthy of Grieg at his best, with a third-movement waltz that easily could become a pops concert favorite. The performances are uniformly excellent: well-played, passionate, and intense, doing the music full justice. Sonically the microphones are just a bit too close to the strings; the result can be overwhelming in fortissimos, but given Atterberg’s romantic style it’s a slip in the right direction. This is a disc not to be missed, and a treat for all fans of good, warm, tuneful, big-hearted music. [3/14/2006]
