Norway’s Harald Saeverud, who died in 1992 at the ripe old age of 95, was a distinctive voice in contemporary music. His (comparatively) early Cello Concerto, from 1930, dates from a period in which he briefly flirted with 12-tone composition, and accordingly it’s a thorny and uncompromising work that manages to remain remarkably fluent and clear. The chamber-like scoring, which presents memorable if necessarily chromatic melodies in kaleidoscopic combinations of solo instrument with individual orchestral groups (especially the winds), makes for bracing listening, and it’s very well played by cellist Truls Mork. This piece will never be popular, but it’s good to have on disc.
The Eighth Symphony was commissioned and premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra (then the Minneapolis Symphony) in 1958. It’s Saeverud’s most ambitious symphonic work, a big, bold, colorful score in the composer’s late, “bony” style: clearly tonal, acerbic, and scored without an ounce of excess fat. Its four movements reflect the history of Minnesota’s large Norwegian immigrant community and carry evocative subtitles: “Once upon a time…”, “Hope and longing”, “Gay day”, and “Man and machine”. There’s a lot to enjoy here: the pastoral interludes (complete with cowbells), sly references to folk song, and the mechanical sounds of the finale, all rendered with Saeverud’s keen ear and dry wit. The Stavanger Symphony Orchestra under Ole Kristian Ruud plays this far-from-easy music with real commitment, and sports some excellent first desk solos from the winds and brass. BIS’ sound is typically resplendent, making this a fine addition to its undeservingly little-known Saeverud series.
