Atterberg / Andersson / Levin - Concerto for Violin / Cello & Orchestra [CD]

This release includes the first recording of Kurt Atterberg's concerto for violin, cello and symphony orchestra, a work inspired by folk tunes and commissioned by the Swedish Radio in 1960. This release also includes his Suite Barocco- elegant neoclassical music, used as theme music to Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale and The Sinfonia per archi- music of deep and sincere emotion. One of Sweden's leading composers during the middle twentieth century, Kurt Atterberg championed contemporary Swedish music as a whole in his work as a conductor, critic, and officer in composer-advocacy organizations. His music was easily accessible - a polytonal treatment of late Romanticism - and he had little love for more advanced techniques or the composers, even young Swedes, who used them. In his lifetime, he developed only a small reputation outside Scandinavia, mainly in Germany; even in Sweden he was regarded as something of a relic by the 1950s, his final period of extensive composition. Atterberg's work has enjoyed a revival on recordings, if not in the concert hall, and his posthumous reputation now seems secure.