Orchestra Music 1944-1958

"Lidholm's early output brought into focus, culminating in the magisterial Ritornell..a sonic spectacular."
(Gramophone)

This is the third and final volume of a series surveying the orchestral music of the doyen of Swedish composers, Ingvar Lidholm who was born in 1921. The music on this disc was composed between 1944-1958 and it illustrates the growth of the young composer into a mature artist with an instantly recognizable voice.

Lidholm's years as a student of music coincided with World War II when Sweden, though neutral, was effectively shut off from the rest of Europe. This sense of isolation led many pioneering young people to look to the Continent for inspiration as soon as the war ended and boundaries opened again.

Lidholm immersed himself in Continental avant-garde music by assiduously listening to the radio and in 1949 he became the first Swede to visit the summer courses for new music at Darmstadt. Very early on he became personally acquainted with such pioneering composers as Lutoslawski, Ligeti, Berio and Olivier Messiaen. Lidholm's early works reveal a subjective, Scandinavian romanticism, but the influence of Hindemith and Bartók soon becomes apparent, though always employed in a highly personal manner.

The previous discs in the series were warmly reviewed: "Excellent performances… This disc gets a strong recommendation" was the view of the International Record Review while Fono Forum gave the first disc a special recommendation for both performance and recording.

Many have been waiting for further issues in the series and we are pleased to be able to fulfil their wishes! As on the previous discs in this series (BIS-CD-1200 & 1240), the music is performed by the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, conducted by their musical director Lü Jia. The recordings benefit from the active collaboration of the composer himself.

This disc will be self-recommending to all those who have been following the series which fills an important gap in the documentation of contemporary music.