NATANAEL BERG (1879-1957): Symphonic Works, Vol. 2 - Symphony No. 3 "Forces", Suite from The Suitors of the Duchess, Reverenza.

Description: Since there are five symphonies and we've already had 1 and 2 (exactly a year ago this month), we'll assume that the next volume will be the last. Here, in addition to No. 3, we have a six-minute commission for the 80th birthday of conductor/composer Armas Järnefelt, which accomplishes a lot in a short time, especially after appearing to be a meandering meditation at the beginning. The 23-minute suite is either ballet or stage music (the notes are silent on this) for a work of Spanish environment ("Gypsy Dance", "Idyll and Serenade", "Tarantella", "Sevillana" and "Polonaise" are its not-entirely-Spanish sections) and, although you may not first choose a Swedish veternarian/composer for your Spanish-flavored music, Berg provides colorfully attractive goods. The symphony is a two-movement work which began in 1917 as a one-movement tone poem called Selbst ist der Mann but which later, after love and marriage in 1930, became a 1938 two-movement symphony called "Man-Woman" (as the abstract "Powers" of the subtitle. A Straussian program note is accompanied by Straussian orchestration with much striving and vigorous activity in the first movement and noble and expressive melodies in the second, the "Woman" segment ending in an almost religious cantabile. Norrköping Symphony Orchestra; Ari Rasilainen.