Hans Eklund(1927-99)- another Allan Pettersson?

[Dundonnell]

I don't know the answer to the question I posed in the title of this thread but..........

Eklund is a Swedish composer of whom I know very little. He was a pupil of Lars-Erik Larsson and of Ernst Pepping in Germany. He taught at the Swedish State Academy of Music. I read that he was heavily influenced by Hindemith.

Eklund wrote thirteen symphonies.

These have titles as follows:

Symphony No.1 "Sinfonia Seria"(1958)
Symphony No.2 "Sinfonia breve(In Memoriam"(1964)
Symphony No.3 "Sinfonia Rustica" (1967-68)
Symphony No.4 for narrator and orchestra "Hjalmar Branting In Memoriam"(1973-74)
Symphony No.5 "Quadri"(1977)
Symphony No.6 "Sinfonia senza Speranza"(1983)
Symphony No.7 "La Serenata"(1983, rev. 1992)
Symphony No.8 "Sinfonia Grave"(1984)
Symphony No.9 "Sinfonia Introvertita"(1992-93)
Symphony No.10 "Sine Nomine"(1994)
Symphony No.11 "Sinfonia piccola"(1994-95)
Symphony No.12 "Frescoes"(1995-96)
Symphony No.13 "Sinfonia Bianca-Nera"(1997-98)

The only one of these ever to be recorded was Symphony No.6 "Sinfonia senza Speranza" on a Swedish Society Discofil LP with Yuri Ahronovitch conducting the Stockholm Philharmonic(1984) and this recording has been uploaded to this site.

The coupling on the LP was Allan Pettersson's Symphony No.16....and here we get to the real point I have only just listened to this symphony for the first time and..wow!! I am impressed   The Eklund has that same dark, grim, forbidding countenance of quite a few other much more famous Swedish and Scandinavian composers but the composer who immediately sprang to mind was Pettersson himself.

How fickle is the hand of Fate that Pettersson should now be the subject of so much attention from recording companies like BIS and CPO and of discussion at considerable length on forums like this, discussion which is in-depth analysis of the symphonies, and yet Eklund is a composer of whom I, at least, had never heard until a few weeks ago.

And now, when I hear the music, I sit bolt upright with astonishment  at how good it sounds to my ears, certainly in the same class as composers like Pettersson or Karl-Birger Blomdahl.

I hope that Holger will not mind me saying that he has recordings of Eklund's Symphonies Nos. 7 and 8 which I plead with him to upload when he has the time to do so I really would love to hear more Eklund now

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Once again you gain gratitude from those of us eager to reduce the number of worthy unsungs!

Crikes, I didn't realise Eklund had composed 13 symphonies! I believe there is also a fair amount of other orchestral music, and at least three string quartets.

I know his Requiem from a Phono Suecia recording. Must in fact brush the dust off it and give it another listen, for I remember a fine work.

One point you don't make is that there are number of Swedish composers who, on the basis of written evidence and the odd recording / broadcast, seem to be composers of more than considerable repute. There is also a Swedish record label of very great repute that is an independent one and thus free, subject to finance, of recording whatever it wishes. I refer of course to BIS.

The utterly frustrating thing for folk like us is that composers like Eklund are sitting there right under its nose (a curious English expression) and yet BIS does not appear to notice them. Another is Hilding Rosenberg. I recall you've mentioned him on other posts. There are a few (not nearly enough) Rosenberg recordings about, but not one of them (I think) is a BIS recording. When BIS take a composer to their heart (Sibelius being the very obvious example, though there are others such as Stenhammar) then, thank heavens, they 'do' them well. But it is curious how they then completely ignore others. I don't know if it is exactly analogous, but such a situation would seen akin to, for example, Chandos deciding to ignore Howells or Rubbra, or Hyperion or Toccata turning a blind eye to Havergal Brian. Maybe there are some dull legal / copyright reasons? I dunno, but it is our loss.

To the barricades bearing banners proclaiming 'Hans Eklund', eh?

[Dundonnell]

I am afraid that my criticism of BIS has become stale though over-use

The Swedish company has done marvellous work over the years on behalf of many fine Scandinavian composers: Alfven, Stenhammer, Nystroem, Larsson, Pettersson  and Blomdahl(from Sweden), Holmboe(from Denmark), Saeverud and Valen(from Norway), Sibelius(of course), Kokkonen and Aho (from Finland): to focus almost entirely on the 20th century.
Nobody would wish to fail to acknowledge that achievement.

If you look at a list of Swedish composers however you are struck by the missing names. BIS has recorded only one Atterberg symphony and has almost totally cold-shouldered Peterson-Berger, Rangstrom, Wiren and, most remarkably (as you suggest) Hilding Rosenberg. Fortunately, of course, CPO has come to the rescue with symphonic cycles of all of these bar Rosenberg.

The reason remains the same as in the past. The company is owned by someone who does not see it as his public duty to record the music of composers he does not personally like. End of story

[Gareth Vaughan]

Well, annoying as that may be to members of this forum, I'm afraid if I ran a record company I'd be inclined to record music I liked and ignore music I didn't. I wouldn't think that I had a public duty to record (for example) the, to my ears, pretentious and silly music of Cornelius Cardew (nor of many an English composer infected with Glockian serialism), but I would record lots of Josef Holbrooke. And many people might think I was mad to do so, particularly his detractors - of which there are still many.

[Dundonnell]

Indeed, Gareth

In making the point I, quite deliberately, did not go on to assert that the owner does have such a "public duty".

It is a source of regret to me and, obviously, to others that the company concerned does not choose to record the music we happen to like but it is clearly the company's prerogative. One cannot force any company to record the music of particular composers.

On the other hand, I do think there is a difference between a decision which you might make as the owner of this hypothetical company to record the music of Joseph Holbrooke (which i would applaud ) and to ignore the music of Cornelius Cardew(a decision which I would also applaud ) and the neglect by Sweden's main recording company for classical music of the music of the Swedish composers mentioned. Hilding Rosenberg was, after all, described by Robert Layton as "the Grand Old Man" of Swedish music and his compositions are certainly a good deal more 'attractive' to the ear than some of the more 'advanced' composers BIS has recorded.

However.....as we shall be, quite properly, reminded, the thread was intended to draw Hans Eklund to the attention of members rather than to continue this particular discussion

[erato]

The problem as I see it isn't with BIS (however regrettable I find their policy to be), but with the fact that former gloriuus labels like Caprice, Swedish Society Discofil and Phono Suecia seem to be completely inactive, no new recordings, and very limited availability of their back catalogue, some of which have never even been available in digital format. Sweden currently seem to be without a singe label commited to their musical heritage like Simax in Norway, Dacapo in Denmark, and Ondine (with smaller labels like Fuga and Alba) in Finland, BIS having no such commitment aside from recording Robert von Bahr's fancies.

[Mark Thomas]

I'm sorry, but I find that last statement silly at best. I've pumped a fair amount of my own money into recording projects over the last half dozen years; surely no one would suggest that I should have done so on projects about which I wasn't enthusiastic? No, of course not. BIS isn't a big company and no doubt Mr von Bahr is a hands-on owner. My money was a gift, his is an investement and, in the small to medium sized companies which I've owned over the years, I wouldn't have invested in anything about which I was unenthusiastic. Big corporations are different, but an owner-managed business is a very personal thing.

[erato]

I'm sorry, but I find that last statement silly at best. I've pumped a fair amount of my own money into recording projects over the last half dozen years; surely no one would suggest that I should have done so on projects about which I wasn't enthusiastic? No, of course not. BIS isn't a big company and no doubt Mr von Bahr is a hands-on owner. My money was a gift, his is an investement and, in the small to medium sized companies which I've owned over the years, I wouldn't have invested in anything about which I was unenthusiastic. Big corporations are different, but an owner-managed business is a very personal thing.

Not saying that BIS should record anything particular at all. Just pointing out that Sweden lacks a company commited to Swedish music in general since the only currently reasonably active and big recording company in Sweden seems to be BIS, and they don't do it aside from a few composers in von Bahr's particular field of interest. Nothing wrong with that (and I'm thankful for a lot of BIS discs), but a pity that such a large amount of interesting and valuable Swedish music seems unavailable. 

[Holger]

I hope that Holger will not mind me saying that he has recordings of Eklund's Symphonies Nos. 7 and 8 which I plead with him to upload when he has the time to do so I really would love to hear more Eklund now

I will do so in a near future. In any case, I agree Eklund is a fine composer and I was glad to find two further symphonies by him in the downloads section this morning.

[isokani]

Cornelius Cardew (nor of many an English composer infected with Glockian serialism)

I wonder whether you would include Cardew among those you describe as an 'English composer infected with Glockian serialism'?

While Cardew certainly used aspects of serialism in his tonal and atonal works, and did so quite thoroughly during the period 1956--62, regarding any influence Glock may have had on this, the sequence of events speaks for itself as far as I can see: before 1959 Glock's main sphere of influence was as founder and director of the Dartington Summer School which, as far as I can see, Cardew did not attend. However, during the years 1953-57 Cardew did attend the RAM London, where his teacher of composition was ... Howard Ferguson! In 1955 Cardew probably started work on his Piano Sonata no.1 (four years before he could reasonably have been exposed to Glock's interest in serialism), and in 1957 he performed in the UK premiere of Le Marteau sans maitre (having learned the guitar expressly for that event), the same year going to study with Stockhausen in Cologne (still two years before Glock's tenure at the BBC had begun). It seems that Glock may have even followed Cardew's lead -- keen as he was to reinvigorate the BBC -- rather than the other way round.

In his obit of Glock in The Guardian, Stephen Plaistow describes the situation in the late 50s thus:

'When he went to the BBC, in 1959, Euroscepticism was still rife in the British musical establishment. Glock's appointment perplexed a lot of people, but already an underground movement had been pressing for change. By the time he left, in 1972, the reinvigoration of serious music broadcasting was complete. There had been great days before, and, in Edward Clark, Glock had had a distinguished predecessor whose programming of contemporary music in the years before 1939 was a model of enterprise. But in the period between them, BBC music was becalmed. I remember Peter Heyworth in the Observer in the 1950s berating the old music division for giving us always the latest cow-and-gate cantata and Cheltenham symphony, but rarely the latest Stravinsky.'

[Dundonnell]

I do seem to have opened up the proverbial can of worms The influence of Glock at the BBC is a big and contentious subject but maybe one for elsewhere

Anyway....many thanks to britishcomposer and to Sicmu for uploading the Eklund Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3. Those will add considerably to one's ability to start reaching any sort of more definitive impression of just how good Eklund actually is

[Gareth Vaughan]

I wonder whether you would include Cardew among those you describe as an 'English composer infected with Glockian serialism'?

An unfortunate juxtaposition. I didn't mean to imply that Glock was an influence on Cardew - but I see that what I have written does read like that.
I don't suggest that Glock's influence at the BBC was all bad, but I was heartily sick of the quite considerable amount of tedious and pretentious "noise" inflicted on listeners of Radio 3 before we were even halfway through his reign as Controller.

[JimL]

I do seem to have opened up the proverbial can of worms The influence of Glock at the BBC is a big and contentious subject but maybe one for elsewhere

Maybe he should have just stuck with making handguns! 

[regriba]

Sweden currently seem to be without a singe label commited to their musical heritage like Simax in Norway, Dacapo in Denmark, and Ondine (with smaller labels like Fuga and Alba) in Finland

As some of you may have noticed, Dacapo has gone through a development a bit similar to that of BIS and now concentrates almost exclusively on modern music. But Dacapo is a bit different, in that they are at least partly state-subsidised and so have an obligation to record Danish music. Still, after recording the symphonies of Ludolf Nielsen, Hakon Børresen and Asger Hamerik in the 1990's, they almost stopped doing that kind of repertoire. They never even finished the series of J. P. E. Hartmann overtures - the only disc is still labelled "Volume one". This means that the symphonies of e.g. Emil Hartmann and Herman Sandby have never been recorded (apart from one historical recording of the latter), and that composers like Victor Bendix and Louis Glass have been left to Danacord, who unfortunately used substandard orchestras for those recordings. Dacapo did in fact record the Glass symphonies in the 90's with Aarhus Symphony Orchestra under (I think) Barry Wordsworth. The recordings were played on Danish radio and announced as forthcoming CD releases. But for some reason they never came out, and I have never been able to find out what happened to them. A pity, because they were (as I remember) a good deal better than the Danacord versions. At least we have the Downes recordings in the downloading section here, which are also very good.

[Dundonnell]

That might also explain why Dacapo has gone no further in recording any more Paul von Klenau

The company has embarked on a Knudage Riisager symphonic cycle.....but perhaps he counts as "modern"