Anders Hillborg (b. 1954)
Piano Concerto No.1 (2001, rev. 2005)
Kongsgaard Variations (2006, arr. 2021)
Vaporised Tivoli (2010)
Cello Concerto (2020)
Tamara Stefanovich (piano), Nicolas Alstaedt (cello)
Swedish Chamber Orchestra/Christian Karlsen
rec. 2024, Örebro Concert Hall, Sweden
BIS BIS-2684 SACD [82]
Hillborg’s Piano Concerto No.1 was composed in 2001 and revised in 2005. It is laid-out in a fairly traditional three-movement mould and consists of a long middle movement framed by two somewhat shorter quick ones. The first movement opens with a massive chord launching a mostly hyperactive main section. Tension is maintained almost throughout the first movement in the manner of a high-fuelled toccata, but the music seems to pause with the piano’s “gentle tales and lullabies” (as Andrew Mellor has it in his always well-informed insert notes) and the music eventually dissipates into the central slow movement. For the most part, the music sounds somewhat static or, at best, exhibits some minimalistic patterning. Nevertheless, it does not remain static throughout but ebbs and flows till it moves straight into the third movement and regains the hyperactive intensity that characterises the first movement. It soon calms down and the piece ends with a final spread chord. It is a strong and gripping piece of music, calling for some considerable dexterity and endurance on the soloist’s part and Tamara Stefanovich has all these qualities a-plenty for she navigates the fiendishly difficult and exacting piano part fearlessly. It is quite a big piece, indeed.
The Kongsgaard Variations was commissioned by the winemaker John Kongsgaard, founder of the Arietta winery in Napa Valley, California. The label design on each bottle of Arietta incorporates a few bars of the Arietta theme from Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No.32 (‘serene yet complex, rich yet ethereal’ says the winemaker’s website), so it is easy to imagine that these few bars from Beethoven’s theme will be the basis of a set of free variations “more like meditations, with no directional process” (the composer’s words) and the music so to say travels through a whole musical gamut of “reminiscences of Baroque, folk-music, Renaissance and Romanticism” (the composer’s words again) and might call some sort of Americana to mind. (It also briefly evokes Tippett’s Corelli Fantasia to me.) This is to say that this is a brilliantly resourceful score displaying some remarkable formal mastery and superbly assured and imaginative string writing. The piece was originally scored for string quartet in 2006 and arranged for string orchestra in 2021, and this is the kind of work that should appeal to any venturesome string ensemble willing to broaden its repertoire.
With Vaporised Tivoli for sinfonietta, commissioned by Ensemble Modern, one is back in Hillborg’s colourful sound world often suggested by equally colourful titles such as Clang and Fury (1985/9), Liquid Marble (1994), the clarinet concerto Peacock Tales (1998) and that of the splendid Celestial Mechanics (1982/5) for strings and percussion – one of his most impressive achievements. The idea of Tivoli in Scandinavia is that of a fairground, so, Hillborg’s short Vaporised Tivoli for the most part invokes the rough, animated, riotous and even raucous energy of children’s play but at about two thirds into the piece the mood changes rather brutally and becomes more ambiguous until the music vaporises leaving only a sentimental melody on the double bass. This, again, is a brilliantly conceived and realised work of considerable energy and invention.
Anders Hillborg’s Cello Concerto, dedicated to Nicolas Alstaedt, was commissioned by a consortium of seven organizations from Québec to Antwerp, and was first performed in Antwerp. It is a quite substantial piece of music indeed and one in which the composer definitely emphasizes the lyrical voice of the soloist rather than its virtuosity. This is not to say that the solo part is easy – far from that – but it calls for some commitment and intense, rather than mere bravura, playing. The work plays in one single unbroken span of almost half an hour and the music falls into five sections of sharply contrasting character playing continuously. The first section, mainly for strings, rather sets the mood for most of the ensuing music and the music so to say floats into the air and it briefly hints at some sort of Elizabethan viol consort held in the distance “as if through a gauze” (the composer’s words). The second section if a Scherzo in all but the name however calming down near the end. The third section, the longest and the most reflective, is clearly the emotional heart of the entire work, an achingly beautiful song with, to my ears at least, a tinge of some extra-European instrument. The penultimate section is yet another Scherzo “in the manner of a ritual dance […] stilled by a reprise of the viol music” (Andrew Mellor) and the concerto is brought to its end by a big crescendo tending to point toward a clearly assertive close but, in the end, the music melts away from where it began. Anders Hillborg’s Cello Concerto is a magnificent piece of music on all counts and, to me, not only one of his finest works but a crowning masterpiece in his rich and varied output. As hinted at earlier, this is a concerto in which emphasis is laid more on expression than on pure technical virtuosity though the solo part is far from easy and considerably taxing for the soloist. Nicolas Alsteadt is a beautifully equipped musician who rises bravely and with ease to the music’s numerous challenges. I am in no doubt about it: Hillborg’s Cello Concerto is not only one of his greatest achievements so far but one of the greatest masterpieces for cello composed in the 21st century.
This splendid release is up to BIS’ best standards and Andrew Mellor’s well informed and illuminating notes are definite assets. I recommend this unreservedly.
Hubert Culot
Buying this recording via the link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
