Barococo Suite Archive

LARSSON: Symphony No. 2; Variations; Barococo Suite – Helsingborg Sym. Orch. /Andrew Manze – CPO

by Audiophile Audition | Apr 16, 2016 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

LARS-ERIK LARSSON: Symphony No. 2; Variations, Op. 50; Barococo Suite, Op. 64 – Helsingborg Sym. Orch. /Andrew Manze – CPO 777 672-2 multichannel SACD, 69:53 [Distr. by Naxos] (11/13/15) ****: Very dedicated performances of these works that remain pretty obscure. There are probably a lot of reasons why the music of Swedish composer Lars-Erik Larsson (1908-1986) does not get played much anymore, least of all outside of northern Europe. Larsson was one of those many ‘bridge’ composers caught in the stylistic transition between the mainly Romantic idiom and the later ‘progressives.’ His music contains strains of such a style; sounding like Sibelius in places; perhaps some Franz Berwald, and is not really so unique as to sound unlike others around him. Another reason could be that, for a composer writing this way deep into the mid-twentieth century, he was battling the ‘new wave’ of genuinely new and unique sound worlds occupied by Prokofiev, Bartok, Nielsen and others. So, his music remains eminently listenable and attractive but rather lost in time (which is interesting, because according to the helpful booklet notes by Christoph Schlüren, Larsson even studied with Alban Berg for a while; disappointed not only that he did not get […]