Concerto for String Orchestra No.1 - Allan Pettersson

Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss conducted by Johannes Goritzki I - Allegro - attacca: 0:00 II - Andante: 9:48 III - Largamente - Allegro: 15:32 The concerto for string orchestra No.1 is Pettersson’s first work for large ensemble. Some of our favorite Pettersson fingerprints are found in abundance here: repetition, insistent use of just a handful of intervals, extremes of dynamics and register, virtuosic demands of the musicians involved, conflict and tension. Pettersson wrote this work during the years 1949-1950. At this point he had about a decade of performing experience as a section violist in the now Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as composition studies with Blomdahl and Olsson in Stockholm. The first performance of this work took place on 6 April 1952, with Tor Mann leading the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. One of the reviewers of this performance, Teddy Nyblom, said something to the effect that the only solution to Pettersson’s dilemma was to stop composing.