WILHELM PETERSON-BERGER (1867-1942): Highlights from Arnljot.

Description: For reasons unexplained in the notes (expense? cost in royalty payments?), we get not the complete opera which Swedish EMI issued on LP in 1973 but only 53 minutes of highlights. First performed in 1910, based on ancient tales by Sturlasson and supplemented by a cycle of poems by Brjørnson, this came to be considered as the Swedish national opera. Latecomers to Peterson-Berger who have discovered him through the series of cpo recordings of his orchestral works can now hear at least part of the work whose name they've often read in liner notes. The intense identification with nature which comes through in his second and third symphonies (composed during the long, eight year period during which the composer wrote the libretto and, later, the music) finds an even clearer voice in the opera. Swedish-English texts. Erland Hagegård (baritone), Karin Langebo (soprano), Edith Thallaug (mezzo), Stockholm Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra; Okko Kamu. Original 1973 Swedish EMI LP release.