Elfrida Andrée (1841-1929)
Fritiof-Svit (1908)
Symphony No.1 in C major (1868)
Norrköping Symphony Orchestra/Hermann Bäumer
rec. 2022, De Geerhallen, Norrköping, Sweden
cpo 555 589-2 [63]
At times in the past decade, it seemed that you couldn’t switch on a classical music radio station or scan any critical reviews without coming across the name of Florence Price. Indeed, our old site’s Google search engine throws up no less than four pages of links to MusicWeb reviews that, to varying degrees, make reference to her.
I suspect that I’m not the only one who, having sampled a few of Ms Price’s compositions, suspects that that particular lady may have been somewhat overhyped. One can, however, easily understand at least one of the reasons why that might be the case. We have, after all, now reached a point where most of what we might call the standard repertoire has enjoyed at least one recording that the critical consensus suggests can hardly be bettered. Record companies have, in consequence, been energetically – if not desperately – exploring many of the more obscure byways of musical history in the hope of rediscovering some long-overlooked composers who, if not actually up there with the giants, might have actually written something that’s worth reviving. The social handicaps and consequent neglect that women composers historically faced have inevitably made them a prime subject of such investigation.
As Stig Jacobsson’s invaluable CD booklet note, on which I have gratefully relied for biographical background, explains, Elfrida Andrée enjoyed something of a ground-breaking career as both an advocate for women’s rights and a musician. Having already become the first woman in Sweden to qualify as a telegraph operator (!), in 1861 she refocused her career and took up a role as the country’s first woman church organist. Six years later she became the first female cathedral organist, not just in Sweden but in the whole of Europe. Equally trailblazing as a woman conductor – and clearly kept very busy – she was eventually to lead a total of more than 800 concerts. It ought to cause little surprise, perhaps, to find that, by the time of her death, she had also composed about 120 works, ranging from large scale orchestral pieces to solos for both violin and piano (review).
This new cpo release showcases two of Andrée’s orchestral works. One comes from her early years as a composer while the other, written 40 years later, is a product of her artistic maturity. Although the CD cover gives top billing to the Symphony no. 1, composed in 1868, the first item programmed on the disc is actually the 1908 Fritiof suite, a reworking of material that had originally been written a decade earlier for her unperformed opera Fritiof’s saga. The revision actually turns out to have been quite a substantial one for, rather than simply presenting a series of movements that simply followed the storyline of her original operatic libretto, Andrée played somewhat fast and loose with her material. Thus, while her third movement King Ring’s ode takes its themes from the opera’s final Act, the material for the suite’s following movement Fritiof’s romance derives from the earlier Act 2. Of course, given that Fritiof’s saga had never actually been staged – or even heard – no-one was likely to challenge her on the point, and it would appear that, in completely reordering her material she was aiming to create something quite different – a satisfying sequence of five orchestral movements that is both balanced in mood and well contrasted. Interestingly enough, at first glance, it might appear that there isn’t all that much in the way of contrast, for an opening Prelude designated maestoso is followed by no less than three rather slow and gentle movements, the first marked andantino, the second andantino maestoso and the third entitled a romance. In reality, however, the invariably attractive thematic material of each is sufficiently distinctive – and the duration of each of the three is so brief – as to overcome any sense of repetition or of lack of creativity.
The Fritiof suite first appeared on disc a decade ago, in the form of a 1995 radio performance by the Stockholm Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gustaf Sjökvist (Sterling CDS-1016-2). Back then my colleague Stephen Greenbank was rather impressed, considering it a “persuasive” performance of Andrée’s “captivating” score. He particularly enjoyed the opening Prelude with its “big tune… as good as any, memorable and imposing” and he also picked out the fourth movement, Fritiof’s romance, as “a ravishing interlude”. Stephen’s judgment was, as usual, spot on and I fully share his enthusiasm.
Andrée’s two symphonies for orchestra should not be confused with the pair that she composed for organ, one of which included an accompanying brass ensemble. The first orchestral symphony is an ambitious work, coming in at around 35 minutes in length and thus significantly longer than her Symphony no. 2 (the premiere recording of which, on the aforementioned Sterling CD, was timed at 28:45). Attracting somewhat mixed critical – and often condescendingly sexist – comment after its 1869 premiere, the work was subsequently dismissed by the composer herself as “thoughtless and lacking control and restraint… [and] a failed experiment in orchestration”. Andrée was perhaps a little too hard on herself in that judgment, not least because that very same “failed experiment” was a feature that some contemporary critics found most impressive, with one praising the composer’s “varied instrumentation” and another singling out her “ability to handle the orchestra”. Nevertheless, it’s fair to say that, while pleasant enough to listen to, the symphony doesn’t demonstrate a great deal in the way of individual identity. Instead it tends to come across as something of a worthy effort or perhaps, indeed, a rite of passage that’s all too reminiscent of pieces by any number of other composers who were writing a decade or two either side of the mid-19th century. Schumann is certainly one who comes to mind, not least in the element of propulsive drive that characterises much of the symphony. Ultimately, however, Andrée fails to demonstrate the older composer’s facility in conjuring up memorable ear-worm tunes. You may well also find Raff popping into your head and that’s perhaps a more apt comparison for, like him, Andrée ultimately produces something that, while generally enjoyable, doesn’t amount to an especially remarkable musical experience.
While it is, then, pleasant enough to hear the early work, it is the Fritiof suite that makes the more memorable impression and is well worth getting to know. Reflecting a few more decades of musical experience, it exhibits a degree of maturity that makes one wonder what a late symphony no. 3 might have sounded like. We will never know – but these interesting, very well played and well recorded performances ought, at the very least, to make us grateful that pioneer telegrapher Elfrida Andrée chose not to confine her compositional activities exclusively to the Morse code.
Rob Maynard
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