Erik Möllerström (guitar)
Guitar
Åsa Lindström (flute); Swedish Guitar Trio; Per-Ola Claesson (cello)
rec. 1978-84, no venues specified
Reviewed as MP3 download
Sterling CDA1874-76 [223]
Swedish guitarist Erik Möllerström (1940 – 2021) was born into a musical family, and his mother urged him to play cello, but to his mother’s despair, in his teens he instead bought a banjo and started playing in a Dixieland Band. Then he heard Segovia and Swedish guitarist Gunnar Lif in concerts, which opened his eyes to the classical guitar. He began taking lessons from Lif and Roland Bengtsson and, inspired by the former, went to Spain for further studies with Eduardo Sainz de la Maza in Barcelona. Back in Sweden, he became a part-time guitar teacher, an activity that expanded and became his bread and butter. Parallel with this, he also gave concerts, nationwide and internationally, and when he formed the Swedish Guitar Trio, together with Jörgen Rörby and Göran Wiström, they also toured extensively. Besides solo recitals, he also performed as a chamber musician with other instrumentalists and string quartets. This memorial set contains examples of all this. The majority of the contents are transfers from LP recordings but there are also some live recordings from radio archives.
On CD 1, we meet him first in Spanish repertoire: seven pieces by Francisco Tárrega, with the well-known Recuerdos de la Alhambra as the starting point. It is enticingly melodious music with a streak of melancholy – apart from the concluding Pavana, which is more optimistic. The tremolo playing in Alhambra is perfect. The anonymous Romance d’amour, well-known from many recordings, the first issued as early as 1900, has been performed by popular artists such as Julio Iglesias, Andy Williams and Mireille Mathieu, and perhaps most famously as the Leitmotif in the film Jeux interdits from 1952, played by Narciso Yepes. In Sweden it is known as Du är den ende (You are the only one) sung by Lill Lindfors to a text by poet Bo Setterlind, who much later told the singer that it “was not based on a love affair, but instead aimed at Jesus.” The arrangement here is by Möllerström. Brazilian Juan Pernambuco’s Choros is a lively, rhythmical piece of great vitality, and it is followed by three compositions by Möllerström’s teacher Eduardo Sainz de La Maza, the third of which requires fluent tremolo playing, which Möllerström duly delivers. Isaac Albeniz’ Leyenda already existed in an arrangement for guitar by Segovia, no less, but Möllerström revised it for this recording. It is a tripartite composition with a lot of rather monotonous tremolo in the outer movements, but the middle section is more interesting. The sense of rhythmic freedom is tangible, and the playing is impeccable. Barrios’ melodious well-known Villancico de Navidad, a minuet by Bach, Bonfa’s Chanson d’Orphée from the film Orfeo Negro (arranged by Möllerström’s colleague and compatriot Ulf Åhslund), and a fast and fluent Rondo by Giuliani are sprinkled in between a handful of beautiful pieces for guitar and flute, played by Möllerström’s long-time work-mate Åsa Lindström. We hear some well-known and some unknown by Haydn, Jack Mattson, Ibert and Åsa Lindström herself, and as the finale, Bach’s immortal Air from the third orchestral suite in an arrangement by R. Sainz de la Maza. It is all easy listening and professionally performed.
On CD 2, we encounter the Swedish Guitar Trio on the first 22 tracks. The standard of professionalism is again very high, and it is obvious that they have honed their interplay through innumerable rehearsals and performances.
The repertoire is generally in the popular genre, from Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer, elegantly played in an ingenious arrangement. Swedish listeners will be familiar with songs by national poets Evert Taube and Carl Michael Bellman, the latter’s four melodies being borrowed from others, arranged for trio by Möllerström’s early teacher Roland Bengtsson. Two of the Taube songs were arranged by Möllerström, but the first, Skärgårdsfrun, was to my great joy arranged by my old friend Louise Larsén, a local guitar teacher and since many years deceased.
The programme continues with international hits like Stanley Myers’ Cavatina, Boccherini’s Minuet, popular piano pieces by Schubert and another couple of Scott Joplin melodies, but also more contemporary works, like Dutch guitarist and Segovia pupil Pieter van der Staak (1930 – 2007) and his fascinating Three Myths for Guitar Trio, and well-known British guitar master John W. Duarte’s Variations on a Swedish folk song. We don’t hear music for guitar trio too often and this disc is a golden opportunity for afficionados to wallow in the sounds. The remaining tracks on CD 2 are devoted to Spanish dances by Guillermo Uitarra and Enrique Granados in arrangements for cello and guitar, where Möllerström is joined by P. O. Claesson. Möllerström’s Spanish “roots” from his early years in Barcelona bear fruit here of course, and Claesson seems to be a kindred spirit. As generous encores, they play three short waltzes bythat indefatigable melody maker Schubert – as charming as ever.
The final disc is Möllerström’s own, where he plays Fernando Sor’s complete etudes – all 49. So many guitar students through the years have struggled with them, more or less successfully, and here those in the latter category will find the key; this is how they should be played – but these etudes are far from dry exercises, as they have intrinsic musical value, too. Often we hear them a few at a time in mixed programmes, and maybe all 49 at one go can lead to surfeit, but this recording project, issued on two LPs in 1984 and 1982 respectively, is an act of love that permeates every bar of every piece. It is a goldmine to return to time and again.
The three discs are accompanied by a booklet with all discographic data and a long interview with Erik’s widow Monica by Henry Larsson, where we get a deeply personal portrait of his background and activities – very valuable indeed.
An issue not only for guitar afficionados, but for anyone who appreciates beautiful music.
Göran Forsling
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Contents
CD 1 – Sterling CDA1874
Francisco Tárrega
1. Recuerdos de la Alhambra, 4’00
2. Capricho Árabe, 5’00
3. Lagrima, 1’35
4. Adelita, 1’25
5. Marieta, 2’45
6. Mazurka en sol, 3’05
7. Pavana, 2’05
Juan Pernambuco
8. Romance d’amour, 2’30, trad. (arr. Erik Möllerström)
9. Choro, 2’25
Eduardo Sainz de La Maza
10. Cancion del Lladre, 2’05
11. Habanera, 3’20
12. Campanas del Alba, 5’00
Isaac Albeniz
13. Leyenda, 7’20 (arr. Andrés Segovia – Erik Möllerström)
Jack Mattson
14. Morgonrodnad, 2’23
Augustin Barrios
15. Villancico de Navidad, 2’20
Ulric Neumann
17. Kärleksvals, 1’12 (arr. K. Fritzén – K. Öhman)
Joseph Haydn
18. Little Dance, 1’10 (arr. L. Moyse)
Jacques Ibert
19. Entr’acte, 3’18
Louis Bonfa
20. Chanson d’Orphée, 2’39
(arr. U. Åhslund)
Joseph Haydn
21. Serenad, 2’38, (arr. Roland Bengtsson)
Mauro Giuliani
22. Rondo, 2’28 C-dur opus 71
Åsa Lindström
23. Vals i vemod 1’56
J.S. Bach
24. Air ur orkestersvit nr 3, 4’37 (arr. R. Sainz de la Maza)
CD 2 – Sterling CDA1875
Scott Joplin
1. The Entertainer, 3’30, arr. Mary Criswick, Chappel & Co)
Evert Taube
2. Skärgårdsfrun, 1’42 (arr. Louise Larsén, Nordiska Musikförlaget)
3 Brudvals, 2’06, (arr. Erik Möllerström, Sonora)
4. Pepita Dansar, 1’17, (arr. Erik
Möllerström, Körlings
Musikförlag)
Carl Michael Bellman
5. Fredmans Sång nr. 21, 1’17
6. Fredmans Epistel nr. 7, 1’41
7. Fredmans Epistel nr. 42, 1’07
8. Fredmans Sång nr. 60, 1’02
(arr. Roland Bengtsson, Gitarrmusikförlag)
Stanley Myers
9. Cavatina, 3’28, (arr. John Williams, Robbins Music Corporation)
trad. (arr. Elis Hansson,
10. Skräddarekadrilj, efter Florsen i Burs1’37,
Gehrmans musikförlag)
Scott Joplin
11. Maple Leaf Rag, 2’02, (arr. Mary Criswick, förlag Chappel & Co)
Luigi Boccherini
12. Menuett, 3’37, (arr. Walter Götze, Ed. Schott),
Franz Schubert
13. Moment Musicale No 3, 1’53, (arr. Walter Götze, Ed. Schott)
14. Andante ur Pianosonat a-moll opus 42, 1’49
Pieter Van Der Staak
Tree Myths for Guitartrio
John W. Duarte
Ur Variationer över Värmlandsvisan opus 84
Scott Joplin
20. Pleasant moments, 2’18, (arr. Mary Criswick, Chappel & Co)
Leonhard von Call
21. Minuet opus 26:2, 2’54
trad. (arr. W. Dünnebeil)
22. Cielito lindo, 2’20,
Guillermo Uitarra
23. Danza Espanola No 1, 1’59
24. Danza Espanola No 2, 4’59
Enrique Granados
25. Spanish Dance No 11, 6’57
(arr. P.O. Claesson – Erik Möllerström, Reuter & Reuter Förlags AB).
26. Intermedio, 4’26, (arr. Erik Möllerström, Reuter & Reuter Förlags AB)
Franz Schubert
27. Tre valser, 3’25, (arr. Walter Götze, Ed. Pro Musica)
CD 3 – Sterling CDA1876
Fernando Sor
Etudes opp. 25, 35 & 60
