I had never expected the experience I was headed for when I span this succession of binary bits of information through the laser box! This release incorporates operatic as well as sound poetic events with romantic Lieder and regular Ekelöfian “strountes”, in a happy-go-lucky creativity and a fingertip sensuality and feel for the material’s inherent possibilities that bring to life each and every miniscule emotion of the text, whirling up like the dust of a gravel road in a sudden gust of wind before the thunder in July. Splendid! Surprising!

This Swedish CD – with Swedish texts (sometimes Swedish interpretations of foreign texts and a few examples of Finnish-Swedish poetry: Björling, Diktonius) – brings the art of Lieder and romance quantum leaps into the future.
The impression is sometimes perversely expressive, utilizing every shade of vocal attribution in the performance. The air in this world of Olle Persson’s baritone voice and Matti Hirvonen’s piano is lofty and fresh with a sense of freedom, wherein you can take deep breaths and walk long distances in a mood of frivolity mixed with the earnest seriousness; humor and wit with a backdrop of the dark forces of life.

The piano accompanies the voice, the voice guides the piano – or is it the other way around? There is a perfect match here; these guys must know each other very very well. This CD is a dual achievement to be taken in by the whole quality-oriented audience – and maybe it is a pity that all the songs are in Swedish. However, the well-equipped booklet carries all the texts in English and German too, so maybe the Swedish scent just heightens the experience for the international listeners.

The change of style – happening all over the place – is refreshing. The interpretational sensitivity is stunning. The shifts of mood are complete and moving. You are thrown from jolly quirks to introspective gloom, from frail weaknesses to sturdy, brisk strength!

The composers of the settings of these poems are fairly young, as you can see from the facts supplied above. This, then, must be considered a revival and a renewal of the art of Lieder, of romance. I hear, in the back of my mind, the bass Alexander Kipnis singing Schubert’s “Erlkönig” and I hear Hans Hotter performing “Winterreise”. Those are priceless treasures, but without a renewal of this art, the solo song setting of poetry is headed for oblivion. These young composers and interpreters, presented on a high quality release from Daphne Records, show, though, that we need not fear. The revival is here! This is a brilliant example of how a revitalization of a tradition should be done! Congratulations!

All three composers – Jonas Forssell, Hans Gefors and Kjell Perder – have occupied themselves with opera, feeling now the need and lust for more intimate circumstances. Jonas Forssell is the son of the famous Swedish poet and enfant terrible Lars Forssell (b.1928), and five of the texts that Jonas Forssell brings to the CD media are harvested from his father’s rich oeuvre.
One of the composers – Kjell Perder – is also the author of the poems of his composition; “Canto Erotico”, from which seven texts are drawn. They are passionate love poems, dedicated to instruments, like the clarinet and the viola, but the texts are so ambiguous, with a delicacy of touch, that each new instrument just seems to represent another beautiful lady, or a different aspect of the same wonderful being…

A particularly happy recurrence are the four poems by Christian Morgenstern, who, I think, was the first writer I discovered who pushed me in the direction of lettrism, sound poetry and text-sound; very liberating for a young and too serious student of literature! Jonas Forssell is the one who brings Morgenstern aboard, and even though we don’t get to hear my favorite; “Fisches Nachtgesang (The deepest German poem)” (1905), we still are treated to “The Cloud Lamb” – and that’s not bad either!

Thank you guys! It has been a pleasure! Come back by anytime!