Hjalmar Borgstrøm's Symphony in G

Started by Ilja, Monday 26 July 2021, 08:53

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Ilja

I don't think mention has been made yet of forum member Tuomas Palojärvi's reconstruction of Hjalmar Borgstrøm's symphony in G of 1890. You can hear the result here (Dorico/Noteperformer). A fine work, full of atmospheric and dramatic touches.

Mark Thomas

Yes, it's a fine, muscular Nordic work and all credit to Tuomas for breathing life back into it.

tpaloj

Thanks for the mention - this was a challenging task as it seems the full score has not survived (would need confirmation if this indeed is the case?). Reconstructed from a copyist's handwritten set of parts.

Heavily orchestrated particularly often with the brass yet musically lively with some excellent themes, fine writing for an early opus work. Especially I feel the passionate Andante movement is something special. Finale towards the end combines themes from earlier movements to a great conclusion.

eschiss1

I am guessing the parts of this first of his 2 or more symphonies can be seen at the Norwegian National Library website. It was indeed premiered in 1890. See Dutch Wikipedia which has articles on many of his works including his symphonies. Apologies for the tangent though!

semloh

Oh yes, a very impressive and distinctively Nordic symphony! The accompanying photograph nicely captures the feeling. Thank you, Tuomas.

tpaloj

Thanks for the kind words. You can download this preliminary score which, for now, lacks proper formatting but should hopefully be enough to follow along for better evaluating the work. I hope it can be useful for now until (or if ever) there becomes real need for creating a well-proofread and formatted conductor's score in the future.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m0grqjsheuz3idv/Hjalmar%20Borgstrom%2C%20Symphony%20in%20G%20-%20preliminary%20score.pdf?dl=0