# Allan Pettersson



## Steber (Jul 11, 2014)

I am just listening to Symphony 7 by Allan Petterson, a 20th century Swedish composer. Primarily a symphonist. Has anyone else in the forum heard works by this composer? I think I would described him as Mahlerian, but very dark. I don't think there are many recordings of his work.


----------



## Guest (Oct 19, 2014)

http://www.talkclassical.com/2564-allan-pettersson.html

Love the guy nowadays, but it actually took me a long time to give him a chance on the sole basis that his gargantuan single movements intimidated me. A sound file over an hour long is no joke, but I was still a fool.


----------



## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I tried to get into his music once. It was too dark for me at the time. Maybe one day.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Yes. The 7th is devastating.


----------



## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

I've been living with Pettersson's music for the better part of 40 years, and I love all of it dearly, but let me say that none of his music is every day staples even for me, I have to be in my special Pettersson mood to be able to fully enjoy it!

/ptr


----------



## cjvinthechair (Aug 6, 2012)

http://classical-music-online.net/en/composer/Pettersson/3632

Yes, in fairness I'm a relatively recent (4/5 years) convert to Pettersson, but he is pretty reasonably represented nowadays, & I'd certainly recommend Classical Music Online as a forum to get to know him & many other fabulous composers.
The $20-odd dollars for 3 years unlimited downloading from this site is as good a bargain as I've found on the Net. It's genuine - could do worse than try it !
http://classical-music-online.net/en/composer/Pettersson/3632


----------



## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

The Swedish BIS has been recording most of his works.

http://www.bis.se/index.php?op=people&pID=341


----------



## Nevum (Nov 28, 2013)

Steber said:


> I am just listening to Symphony 7 by Allan Petterson, a 20th century Swedish composer. Primarily a symphonist. Has anyone else in the forum heard works by this composer? I think I would described him as Mahlerian, but very dark. I don't think there are many recordings of his work.


One of my very favorite composers. Not really Mahlerian in any way though. He has his own unique brilliant style. His music is somehow "dark", but truly amazing. Other great symphonies are the 6th, 8th and the 12th.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Manxfeeder said:


> I tried to get into his music once. It was too dark for me at the time. Maybe one day.


Yes it is dark and depressing; a composer at the end of the line, both physically and psychologically.


----------



## Guest (Oct 19, 2014)

Yeah, if enough people say "dark and depressing" often enough, then, HEY PRESTO, it will become true, and that much more difficult to listen to Pettersson's music and hear what's actually there without thinking "dark and depressing."

Now _that,_ I would say, is depressing.

Pettersson's music does have a very peculiar quality, which comes largely from how he works largely with what in any other composer's work would be the secondary lines, the support music as it were, the accompaniment. So it has, at first, a strange sound, as if it were missing something.

I guess combining that particular undercutting of expectations with details of his personal life (and why the detail about Pettersson himself strongly deprecating self-pity isn't one of the details that gets any traction is anyone's guess) gets you dark and depressing.

I strongly recommend listening to his music without thinking about anything you've ever been told about his life. Listen to the music itself. Forget about happy and sad and joyful and depressed. Forget about light and dark. Listen to the music, complete in all its mystery.

And if you can do that, then give some other much larded with silliness composers a listen. Forget everything anyone has ever told you about Shostakovich. Forget everything anyone has ever told you about Schoenberg. You might be pleasantly surprised.

(Do you know that Berlioz early got the reputation for hating fugues and so was accused of not writing any or not very good ones, anyway. But then some intelligent listeners came along and said "Wait a minute; his works are littered with fugues, some of them double ones. He doesn't finish them off in a traditional way, but that's because he's using them inside other works and so has them serving the musical logic of each of those other works, operas or symphonies or dramatic legends." And then an intelligent biographer (Jacques Barzun) ferretted out the very easy to find high marks Berlioz got in the conservatory for counterpoint.

And while you can still find people parrotting that old platitude, it's not nearly as much as it used to be. So maybe there's hope for Schoenberg and Shostakovich and Pettersson as well.

I am not, just by the way, holding my breath or anything.)


----------



## Guest (Oct 19, 2014)

Some Guy, you have a point somewhere that I understand, but in Pettersson's case, I'm almost certain I'd come away thinking it "dark" either way. But then again, unlike you, I haven't transcended humanity quite yet, so the fault lies with me.


----------



## Guest (Oct 19, 2014)

Yes, I love his music and have been a fan for about 30 years. All of the Symphonies are excellent, as is his Violin Concerto No.2 (I prefer the original version on Caprice), his Sonatas for Two Violins, and his three Concerti for String Orchestra. Powerful stuff.


----------



## Guest (Oct 20, 2014)

arcaneholocaust said:


> Some Guy, you have a point somewhere that I understand, but in Pettersson's case, I'm almost certain I'd come away thinking it "dark" either way. But then again, unlike you, I haven't transcended humanity quite yet, so the fault lies with me.


Well, thanks for the condescending praise from your lofty position of being human. I guess.

Since you've so brilliantly defined me as non-human, I don't suppose any anecdotal evidence from my own experience will count, but I don't think of Pettersson as "dark" and never have. I don't come away from any listen to any piece thinking in one word abstractions, for that matter. But that's probably a human thing which I have transcended, eh?


----------



## Guest (Oct 20, 2014)

Edited Because: Radical superiority complexes aren't worth even a single infraction.


----------



## Guest (Oct 20, 2014)




----------



## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

It's probably been over a year since I ventured into Pettersson's work, I can't remember much of what I did hear, and the little I do remember not very well. I do recall tuning out quite often, probably owing to the length and density of the symphonies, which are rather large and monolithic, like a phalanx marching upon you — not that I would know what that's actually like, but the analogy is aesthetically pleasing, so forgive me for my baseless conjecture. I am glad his work is receiving more attention lately, again, I don't actually remember much of it, but I do recall having a generally favourable opinion of whatever it was that I actually heard.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Steber said:


> I am just listening to Symphony 7 by Allan Petterson, a 20th century Swedish composer. Primarily a symphonist. Has anyone else in the forum heard works by this composer? I think I would described him as Mahlerian, but very dark. I don't think there are many recordings of his work.


You are correct. There are NOT many recordings of his symphonies. He will never be mainstream. His music is an "acquired" taste and I'm glad I acquired it.

In the last 40 years of listening to live radio concerts, I have only heard one performance of anything by Pettersson and it was by the Chicago Symphony of the Seventh Symphony around 25 years ago. I taped it.


----------



## Polyphemus (Nov 2, 2011)

hpowders said:


> You are correct. There are NOT many recordings of his symphonies. He will never be mainstream. His music is an "acquired" taste and I'm glad I acquired it.


Another one to add to my list. Sadly this is all too true of so many composers. One of my own personal favourites, Robert Simpson, would be virtually unheard of were it not for the work of Hyperion the record label. They made all his symphonies and string quartets available and I suspect it would be a challenge to find them on any other label. Chandos also champions the lesser known repertoire.


----------



## SilverSurfer (Sep 13, 2014)

I can't help saying that this box with his complete symphonies on CPO...









... was priced (obviously, by mistake) on less than 10,-€ in Amazon.es during some minutes, and they have honoured it at least to a friend, others are on the row expecting...


----------



## Steber (Jul 11, 2014)

I have just listened to Petterssons Symphony 8. I tried to listen to it without prejudice or a programme in mind. I would say that part of the reason Pettersson sounds 'dark' could be due to the composers dissonant musical language and complex rhythmic patterns. Having said that, I haven't listened to all the symphonies. But I do feel that he should be approached without prejudice. On a subjective note, my own feeling after listening is one of the composer having something serious to express and being at pains to communicate it. This could be said of many composers, but Pettersson probably expressly so.


----------



## Guest (Oct 20, 2014)




----------



## Guest (Oct 23, 2014)

Well, I didn' mean to shut the thread down with Carter's _Variations,_ just to give an example of something dissonant and rhythmically complex that I didn't think anyone would take as "dark."

However, I just now gave a listen to Pettersson's symphony nr. 8 myself, just because. I hadn't, for some reason, listened to number eight for awhile.

And now I have a question for Steber. Were you thinking of "dissonant musical language and complex rhythmic patterns" when you were listening to number eight in particular or just referring to Pettersson generally? Because the symphony nr. 8 certainly seems neither particularly dissonant--quite the contrary as Pettersson symphonies go--nor especially complex rhythmically. So now I'm thinking I didn't need to link to the Carter for an example, just to Pettersson's symphony nr. 8 itself.


----------



## Steber (Jul 11, 2014)

I thought that, having listened to Symphonies 7 and 8, dissonance and complexity seemed to be a characteristic of Petterssons musical language, though I have to confess that I haven't listened to the other symphonies yet.


----------



## jimsumner (Jul 7, 2013)

I do like his symphonies but don't listen often. I tend to multi-task and this is most definitely not background music.

And I do find much of his work dark and disturbing. Maybe it's because I know enough of his life story. The man had some bad times.

Or maybe it is dark and disturbing.

And yes, my DNA does show that I am human.


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Number 7 is my favorite. I don't care for the Dorati performance at only 40 minutes-too fast and matter of fact.

I prefer the Segerstam at a very fine 46 minutes. Devastating!


----------



## Birdsong88 (Jun 3, 2015)

He may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I particularly enjoy listening to his music. He did not have the best of circumstances, so his music definitely reflects that. I need to explore his early and late symphonies, and his non-symphonic works. He definitely deserves to be more well-known. His music may be  & , but there are glimpses of .


----------



## Guest (Jun 4, 2015)

Hey! Who bumped this thread?! I like some guy now, for the record.


----------



## Kevin Pearson (Aug 14, 2009)

I know nothing at all about Pettersson so I can't have any preconceived notions about his music but I do find it rather dark. Horrifying sometimes and yet like a good film noir movie I just can't break away from it. I find his music so intriguing and emotional. Certainly not light fare nor for the average listener. It requires complete attention with no distractions to get the most out of his symphonies. He's not the kind of composer I would put on every day but his symphonies are so interesting that I like to return to them. Depressing is not quite a word I would use to describe them but dark certainly.

Kevin


----------



## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

The dare-I-say at times Bolero-like _8th_ is probably the best introduction IMO, less relentless than the _7th_ - which in turn is less relentless than most of the others. 
I´d avoid Segerstam in the 8th.

The _6th_ is a major work, rather static and slow, but difficult like say the 1st movement of Mahler´s 9th - doubled in size.
I´d avoid the CPO recording of the 6th.

The_ 9th _got very different performances - the old Comissiona is much to be preferred, adding 20 mins to the playing time and much Thus much more melodic than the frenzied CPO recording. Unfortunately, the Comissionai doesn´t seem to be on CD.

The _2nd Violin Concerto _(Haendel recording) likewise a masterpiece, if troubling - the conflicts being replaced by a serene melody towards the end.

As for the _Viola Concerto_, I´d like new, less nondescript recording than Imai´s on BIS.

The _3 String Concertos _sound quite conventional, say in the vein of K.A. Hartmann or Honegger. The CPO recording has a rather small ensemble, too small IMO, Westerberg did one with a more orchestral sound.


----------

