# Recommended Nordic composers?



## laurie (Jan 12, 2017)

Who are some of your favorite Nordic composers? (besides Sibelius ... he's already my favorite  !)
And which of their pieces would you recommend as an introduction?


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

Vagn Holmboe,

Any of the Symphonies but the 7th and 9th are favourites of mine, I also like his brass concertos.
The String Quartets can be a bit more difficult but the 1st and 5th are possibly the easiest way into his world - if you like Bartoks quartets Holmboe's quartets may be for you.

I'd also recommend any of Nielsen's Symphonies, the 2nd and 3rd may be the easiest way in but the 5th and 6th are the jewels for me. 
Nielsen also penned a fantastic Clarinet Concerto.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Saariaho-du cristal, Circle Map
Nielsen-symphonies 3-6
Norgard-Terrains Vague, concerto in due tempi, string quartets 7-10


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

There are so many great Nordic composers but to just say a name Hilding Rosenberg and for works his third, fourth and fifth symphonies.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

You might enjoy the symphonic works of Ludolph Nielsen and Wilhelm Stenhammar, the latter also composed some string quartets I found impressive.

Ludolph Nielsen - Symphony No. 3





Stenhammar - Symphony No. 2


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

Rued Langgaard (1893-1952, Denmark) was a late-Romantic composer. I think some of his compositions are quite unique. I recently listened to the complete string quartets recorded by Nightingale String Quartet. Very nice romantic works. The 2nd movement of the 2nd quartet mimics the sound of locomotive, which is really interesting.

I have heard only few of his symphonies. The grand no. 10 is an excellent work, but no. 11 is most impressive to me. Though it is a short piece lasting about 6 minutes, persistently repeated waltz theme is compulsive. I purchased a recording by Stupel, but Dausgaard with Danish National Radio Orchestra sounds better.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

Another recommendation for Nielsen and I would also recommend Berwald


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Finland: Crusell, Madetoja, Englund, Sallinen, Rautavaara, Saariaho, Aho
Sweden: Stenhammar, Berwald, Alfven, Atterberg, Nystroem
Norway: Grieg, Svendsen, Halvorsen, Tveitt
Denmark: Nielsen, L Glass, Holmboe, Norgard
Iceland: Leifs


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## gustavdimitri (Nov 7, 2017)

I agree with Kalevi Aho!  (Met him once  )


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## Samael420 (Nov 8, 2017)

Rued Langgaard, a Danish composer.
I guess that along more standard works he wrote a lot of, uhm, unconventional symphonies, like the 11th mentioned by tortkis already.

- Symphony 1 



- Symphony 4 



- String Quartet 2 



- and, of course, his great organ piece "Carl Nielsen, Our Favourite Composer"


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## Guest (Nov 26, 2017)

There are some really fine composers listed here. Magnus Lindberg is also worth checking out.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Carl Nielsen is a really major figure. Essentials include: 

6 Symphonies (Blomstedt) 
Violin Concerto (Salonen - though I'm not crazy about the Sibelius performance it's paired with, unfortunately) 
Flute Concerto
Clarinet Concerto
Wind Quintet
"Commotio" for organ

I'm not very familiar with the string quartets, but there seem to be a lot of recordings of them; might be worth checking out.


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## cougarjuno (Jul 1, 2012)

The composers listed are all worth listening to -- other than the obvious choices of Nielsen and Grieg, I do like Holmboe, Berwald, Langgaard, Rautavaara, Alfven and Stenhammer. Two that I would definitely add are Niels Gade and Christian Sinding. For particular compositions -- Stenhammer's Piano Concerto #1 is simply a great piece


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

The recently deceased Ingvar Lidholm is worth listening to.
Kontakion is really great.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

Arne Nordheim is a very important Norwegian composer


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## MusicSybarite (Aug 17, 2017)

Allan Pettersson: This is a heavy heavy composer, but it's worthy to explore. You might start with the symphonies 6-8.

Erkki Melartin: Similar to Sibelius, though with some touches of Mahler. The symphonies 3-6 are his best ones, the Violin concerto, the 4 string quartets, the String trio, The Blue Pearl, Traumgesicht, Suite lyrique no. 3, Suite from 'The Sleeping Beauty'.

Hilding Rosenberg: The first modernist Swedish composer. His language is somewhat advanced, but highly enjoyable. I just know the symphonies 1 to 7, which I like 1, 2, 3 and 4 the most.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Got to be Magnus Lindberg for me.

I am not familiar with some of the others mentioned in this thread so far. I will have to do a bit of research. 

This is the kind of thread that keeps me coming back to TC. A chance to discover new composers and pieces.


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

If we expand "Nordic" to include Estonia - which we should if we're including the Finns - I'd like to add the very fine symphonist Eduard Tubin to the list of strongest recommendations (also he worked most of his productive life in Sweden, so I think both countries claim him as one of their own).


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Per Nørgård has been mentioned already. I'd recommend in particular his Symphony no.3.


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## Josquin13 (Nov 7, 2017)

How far you delve into the list below depends on how interested you are in modern/contemporary Nordic composers, as fortunately the tradition of composing brilliant symphonic works in Scandinavia didn't end with Sibelius (though he is likewise among my favorite composers), but has continued up to today. Among late 19th, 20th & 21st century Nordic composers, here's what comes to mind:

Carl Nielsen--Symphonies 1-6, Wind Quintet
Rued Langgaard--Sfaernes music, or Music of the Spheres
Leevi Madetoja--Symphonies 2 & 3
Joonas Kokkonen--Symphonies 1-4 (see below)
Vagn Holmboe--13 Symphonies--one of my favorites is Holmboe's 8th Symphony, "Sinfonia borealis" (Hughes, Semkow recordings):






Also, Holmboe's Chamber Symphonies (Storgards recording), Four Symphonic Metamorphoses (Hughes), String Quartets, and Primavera Op. 55 (Ensemble MidtVest) are worth hearing.

Allan Pettersson--Symphonies 4, 7, 8. I'd suggest you begin with Sergui Comissiona's recording of the 7th. Comissiona is the one conductor I've heard that really understands the expansive romantic elements in Pettersson's 7th--others are too strictly modern & overly fast (though I like Segerstam's 7th too). Not surprisingly, Comissiona was Pettersson's conductor of choice to premiere his symphonies:






Per Norgard--Symphony No. 3 (Segerstam recording), Symphony No. 6 "At the End of the Day" (Thomas Dausgaard recording), Violin Concertos No. 1 ("Helle Nacht" or Bright Night) & No. 2 (Christina Astrand, Peter Herresthal recordings), String Quartets 7-10 (Kroger Quartet--the 10th SQ is dedicated to them)

Einojuhani Rautavaara--Symphonies 1-8--especially 3, 5, 6, 7 "Angel of Light", & 8 "The Journey", Cantus Arcticus, Violin Concerto, Piano Concerto No. 3 "The Gift of Dreams" (commissioned by Vladimir Ashkenazy)

Others to explore--Kurt Atterberg, Erkki Melartin, Paavo Heininen, Aulis Sallinen, Leif Segerstam, Karl Aage Rasmussen, Kalevi Aho, Poul Ruders, Hans Abrahamsen, Kaija Saariaho, Anders Hillborg, Magnus Lindberg, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Bent Sørensen, Fartein Valen.

Some personal favorites:

Carl Nielsen: Quintet for Winds, Op. 43:






Composer Carl Nielsen considered Joonas Kokkonen to be an immensely gifted, promising young talent, and yet Kokkonen isn't that well known today (at least, outside of Finland). When lists of important Scandinavian composers are made, to my surprise, I sometimes find his name missing. IMO, Kokkonen's 4 symphonies are underrated. Here are YT clips to various recordings of Kokkonen's 4 Symphonies, which I'd recommend (for me, his music tends to get better on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th hearing. I'd probably consider his 4th to be his best symphony):

Symphonies 1 & 2 (Sakari Oramo recordings)






Symphony No. 3 (Oramo)






Symphonies 1 & 4, etc. (Paavo Berglund)






*Symphony No. 4 (Kamu)






I'd also recommend hearing three recent violin concertos--those by Magnus Lindberg (Lisa Batiashvili recording), Esa-Pekka Salonen (Leila Josefowicz recording), and Einojuhani Rautavaara (Elmar Oliveira or Pekka Kuusisto recordings).

Most (if not all) of the music & composers I've recommended can be heard on You Tube (for free).


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## Guest (Nov 27, 2017)

Greig has been mentioned, and if you listen to his songs you could do worse than choosing Flagstad. A well worthwhile double Norwegian treat.


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

A Norwegian composer who doesn't seem to have been mentioned yet, but one I enjoy listening to quite often, is Harald Saeverud. All his major works are available on BIS, and while the quality is variable, he's quite a symphonist as far as I am concerned.

Of the post-Sibelius Finn's, my favourite by quite a long way is Aulis Sallinen, but I'd also like to put in a good word for Leevi Madetoja's Third Symphony, as well as his Ostrobothnians, and for Arre Merikanto, a real gem.

I have to add in some more of them Estonians too, beyond the obvious ones of Arvo Part and Errki Sven Tuur. My favourite from there has to be the recently deceased Veljo Tormis, a truly wonderful composer, mainly of choral pieces, a capella to a large extent. His music really deserves to be heard.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

No mention of Geirr Tveitt?

Most of his compositions burned in a fire, but his music that survived seems pretty good.

_Norwegian composer Geirr Tveitt (1908 - 1981) is considered by many the true successor of Edvard Grieg... On one hand he was a true son of his country, from farmer stock, who collected and researched native folk music much like Bartok and Kodaly did in Hungary. On the other hand he was a profoundly modern and original composer, who studied in Paris with people like Villa-Lobos and Honegger. Last but not least he was a formidable piano virtuoso who thought nothing of performing two large and demanding piano concerti in one evening concert. This quite unique combination of skills has produced music of striking originality.

Tveitt was a prolific composer, but his music has been virtually unknown to the general public until the beginning of this century. He might have been more well-known had fate not played a cruel trick on him in 1970. Tragically, his wooden mountain house burnt down to the ground, including the carefully crafted wooden cabinets containing his huge deposit stack of unpublished manuscripts. It was a terrible blow from which he never quite recovered, and which caused him to all but lose the will to compose._

50 Hardanger Tunes





Piano Concerto No. 4


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