Montage # 120 Scandinavia/La Scandinavie

As of September 27, 2013, this montage will no longer be available on Pod-O-Matic. It can be heard or downloaded from the Internet Archive at the following address / A compter du 27 septembre 2013, ce montage ne sera plus disponible en baladodiffusion Pod-O-Matic. Il peut être téléchargé ou entendu au site Internet Archive à l'adresse suivante:

https://archive.org/details/Pcast120


pcast120- Playlist

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The final post of our summer programming on ITYWLTMT is a musical passport post featuring the music of Scandinavian composers. Usually, I mix works by non-native composers with hose of local favourites, but not this week, opting to have one composer of each of the four main Scandinavian countries contribute to the montage.

Three of the four countries have no-brainer so-called “national” composers: Nielden for Denmark, Grieg for Norway and Sibelius for Finland. Sweden, however, is another story. Wikipedia lists quite a few of them, though – no offense intended here – no specific composer or work stands out for me.

There is, however, one work that is a favourite of mine, and it is by Dag Wirén (1905–1986). Wirén studied at the Stockholm conservatory from 1926 to 1931. The following year, he earned a scholarship to further his studies abroad and went to Paris, where he lived for about three years. While there, he studied composition under Leonid Sabaneyev, and attended many concerts and recitals, which apparently did more for his craft than the lessons with Sabaneyev… In Paris he also met Igor Stravinsky and encountered the music of Sergei Prokofiev and Arthur Honegger. Upon his return to Sweden, he composed his first two symphonies and his most famous work, the Serenade for Strings (1937), a spirited neo-classical work with an entrancing round-like finale that I programmed today.

As for the other three more “main stream” composers, I retained an early suite for orchestra by Nielsen (his opus 1), the orchestral version of the Lyric suite by Grieg (with the well-known and mischievous March of the Dwarfs – or gnomes) and two Sibelius favourites – his violin concerto and the (less heard) choral setting of his nationalist Finlandia.

Except fopr the Nielsen (played here by the CBC Vancouver Orchestra under the late Mario Bernardi), all the works are performed by Scandinavian artists.

I think you will love this music too.

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Commentaire français

Le dernier montage de notre série du passeport musical nous amène en Scandinavie, et popose des oeuvres de quatre compositeurs "nationaux" de la Suède, du Danemark, de la Norvège et de la Finlande.

Trois de ces quatre pays ont des compositeurs programmés fréquemment ici et ailleurs - Nielsen, Grieg et et Sibelius. Mais, j'ai dû me concentrer un peu plus pour me fixer sur une oeuvre Suédoise.

Finalement, j'ai choisi la sérénade pour cordes du Suédois Dag Wiren, un contemporain de Stravinski et Honneger. L'oeuvre est probablement sa plus connue - vous reconnaîtrez la ronde du quatrième mouvement.


Tant qu'aux autres, j'ai retenu des oeuvres connues - la petite suite de Nielsen, la suite lyrique de Grieg et le conceto pour violon de Sibélius. Exception faite du Nielsen, touites les autres oeuvres sont interprétées par des artistes scandinaves.

Notez aussi, pur clore la série en grande pompe, la version chorale de Finlandia.

Bonne écoute!