The name Dag Wirén (1905 – 1986) produces associations to a sound character and a healthy mind and body, to salt-sprayed shoals of the outer archipelago and to a certain kind of high-brow intellectualism, to bookshelves filled with heavy, half-bound volumes, humming drone-like, and a sensitive handwriting of notes rustling through the scores spread out across the shining hardwood surface of the director-general size desk.

To us now in our fifties Dag Wirén is probably looked upon as an elderly uncle who comes puffing in through the harbor entrance, maneuvering his old, well kept wooden boat from the 1940s, spreading a sense of safety in our weary 21st century lives. That doesn’t mean that his music couldn’t be adventurous! To the contrary, he brings with him hard gusts from dangerous crossings in fresh gales with the deck washed over by the foam of the waves.

Nosag seldom gives reason for disappointment, and this CD with the music of Dag Wirén has its very own Nordic lustre, its very own Nordic light!

Nosag had chosen three works written as far apart as 1944, 1957 and 1972.
The first one is “Romantisk svit” (“Romantic Suite”) from 1944, revised in 1961. This suite actually constitutes a reworking into a suite of Wirén’s scenic music for “Köpmannen i Venedig” (“The Merchant of Venice”), and is presented in five short movements of contrasting appearances, from the somber, even inwardly desolate, to the expressive, dancing, joyous.

The following piece is the 1972 work “Concertino för flöjt & liten orkester” (“Concertino for Flute & Small Orchestra”). This was in fact Wirén’s last completed composition, with the opus number 44, which also shows that he was rather restrained in his composing. This piece is built from Wirén’s so called metamorphosis method, wherein small themes return a number of times, slightly changed each time, sometimes only intuitionally recognized by the listener. It’s a beautiful, restrained, lucid piece of music, concluding the composing act of Dag Wirén.

The piece that Nosag placed as the last entry on this CD, though, is Opus 32; “Plats på scenen” (“Take Your Places On Stage”) (1957), which is a ballet music (one of three ballet settings by Wirén), commissioned by the choreographer Julius Mengarelli. However, before the piece was to be premiered the choreographer died, and the recording on this CD is in fact the premier of the music!

Wirén’s day’s work is characterized by an increasing rigor and purity, in which the means of expression were cut down to a minimum, to make visible the real structure of the music, in a sort of spartan composing act that became more and more transparent and spiritually economic. In the realm of literature we can find a corresponding development in Vilhelm Ekelund (1880 – 1949), from his deeply romantic and self-centered poetry books of younger years, like “Melodier i skymning” (“Melodies At Dusk”) (1902), “Elegier” (“Elegies”) (1903), “Havets stjärna” (“Star Of the Sea”) (1906) and for instance “Dithyramber i aftonglans” (“Dithyrambs In Evening Glow”) (1906) to the incredibly concentrated and barren aphorism collections of manhood, like “Attiskt i fågelperspektiv” (“Birdseye Atticism”) (1919), “Atticism – Humanism” (“Atticism – Humanism”) (1946) and “Saltet och Helichrysus” (“The Salt and Helichrysus”) (posthumous 1956)

The music of Dag Wirén is fresh air to breathe! It renders – in an expression from Vilhelm Ekelund – a possibility for the calmed down to “see and breathe”. Wirén never attempts to turn his music into anything else than – music! He was talking about “absolute music” – and he meant it! Just listen to some of his string quartets! (not found on this particular CD)

More often than not you can directly identify a piece of music as Wirén’s, without being able to pinpoint exactly what it is in the music that is “Wirénian”. This brand quality differs in intensity from composer to composer. In the case of Wirén it is obvious, as it is in some contemporary composers, like Gilius van Bergeijk or Akos Rozmann. This in no way indicates that the means of expression would be limited, but that a sign of personal excellence is inherent in the music, rendering to the tonal works a certain character of spirit.

Dag Wirén is an indispensable part of Swedish and Scandinavian culture, and this CD from Nosag displays the individuality of Wirén in excellent interpretations and recordings.