Eliasson: Double Concerto & Sinfonia per archi

Album review

Born in 1947, Swedish composer Anders Eliasson receives two world-premiere recordings on this 2008 CPO disc with Johannes Gustavsson leading the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra: his Concerto for violin, piano, and orchestra premiered in 2005 and his Sinfonia per archi premiered in 2003. Both works are immediately attractive, the Concerto for its sweeping lyricism and vivacious virtuosity and the Sinfonia for its unremitting drama and unrelenting intensity. One hears distant echoes, perhaps, of Shostakovich in the string writing and possibly reminders of Pettersson in some of the more desolate passages, but Eliasson is resolutely his own man, writing tonal music that's fresh and exciting and concert music that's challenging but not intimidating. Violinist Ulf Wallin and pianist Roland Pöntinen deliver highly charged and thoroughly convincing performances in the Concerto and Gustavsson and the Swedish Radio musicians turn in brilliantly played and completely committed performances in both support of the soloists in the Concerto and on their own in the Sinfonia. Recorded in richly detailed and brightly colorful sound, this disc deserves to be heard by listeners who like to keep up with the latest musical fashions from Sweden.
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