Symphony No.4 (Sinfonia shakespeariana) / Sinfonia tramontana (Symphony No.6)

"Paavo Järvi directed the Malmö Symphony Orchestra for BIS's previous Nystroem orchestral releases but B Tommy Andersson – familiar to collectors of Phono Suecia and Sterling – proves an excellent successor, producing well-drilled performances spotlighting Nystroem's very particular orchestration. Excellent sound from BIS as usual."
(Gramophone)

As those who have discovered BIS-CD-682 and 782 will already know, Gösta Nystroem (1890-1966) is one of the great Swedish symphonists of the past century. The previous releases include his Sinfonia seria and Sinfonia espressiva (Nos. 2 and 5 of his six symphonies) as well as the symphonic poem The Arctic Ocean ('Ishavet') among other works. In the very favourable reviews at the time, critics were asking for recordings of the very works that now are being released: Nystroem's fourth and sixth symphonies. Although his musical gifts were obvious from a very early age, Nystroem was also a talented painter, and during periods of his life spent in Copenhagen and Paris he actually made a living as a portrait painter - when he wasn't watching football matches with Carl Nielsen or going fishing! In fact it was only at the age of 35 that Nystroem finally decided to take up music and composing as a career, and even after that he would still continue to make painting trips, for instance to the Mediterranean coast of France which provided the inspiration for Sinfonia tramontana, named after the wind sweeping down over Provence 'from beyond the mountains'. (This the composer's sixth symphony proved to be his last work, and was premièred only after his death.) Another of Nystroem's interests was literature, and Shakespeare, in particular, was a great source of inspiration. Nystroem wrote incidental music to The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest, and the latter was to provide material for Sinfonia shakespeareana, in which each movement originally carried a Shakespeare quote as a motto.

As on previous Nystroem discs, it is the Malmö Symphony Orchestra - internationally acclaimed for its recordings of the symphonies of Albéric Magnard - that performs these rarely heard but valuable scores, under the direction of Swedish conductor B Tommy Andersson, who with this disc makes his début on BIS.