Kurt Atterberg was so determined to buck contemporary trends and write defiantly “Romantic”-sounding music that at times he verges on caricature. Take the first movement of the Piano Concerto–a brief nod toward the famous opening of the Grieg–and we’re off to the races with what sounds like the “Warsaw Concerto” on steroids. Strings surge, the piano bangs away constantly: it’s great fun, as long as you don’t take it all that seriously. Trouble is, you can’t help feeling that the composer really did. The problem is particularly acute in the hyperactive finale, which features an improbable tune that seemingly combines the last movement of Brahms’ First Serenade, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, and Tom Lehrer’s “Be Prepared”. The same general observations apply to the Violin Concerto except that the piece is even longer and less disciplined. Any fair assessment of this latter work, however, will have to wait for a performance that does it some measure of justice. Christian Bergqvist is a dreadful soloist, with a thin, watery tone that becomes intolerable in the upper register. Pianist Dan Franklin Smith does better by his concerto, though in both works the Gävle Symphony Orchestra is hardly first class, and the recorded sound is claustrophobic. Music of this type needs world-class advocacy to sound convincing. It doesn’t get it here.
