Hjalmar Borgstrøm: Symphonic Poems

After Alfvén, Borgstrøm.

Hjalmar Borgstrøm (1861-1925) might not be the best-known of Scandic composers, although some of his most important works were performed in his native Norway until the Second World War. Now, with he rediscovery of his extraordinarily picturesque symphonic tone poems, a new page has turned.

Borgstrøm was an exact contemporary of Richard Strauss, and studied with Johan Severin Svendsen and Carl Reinecke. It is easy to hear how people suggest he is a descendent (in musical terms) of Liszt, and yet the two major sound worlds one hears in his music her are Richard Strauss and Wagner.

The piece Tanken (Thoughts), Op. 26, does from 1916. It takes on cosmic matters: an "idea" is encapsulted by "cosmic space" before we meet Man, Woman, and the Tree of Knowledge. The third section portrays times of stress, while the fourth examines temptation before "the idea falls under the yoke of materialism". the globe bursts, and the idea returns to its original form.

The power of thought, one might posit. Themes are expansive (try between six and seven minutes into the expansive Andante). This section is the emotive core of the work. In the third section, I hear more Zemlinsky than anything else; that is, until a somewhat jolly fugal unexpectedly appears!. Anyway, here's the Andante:

Talking of unexpected turns of events, the somewhat Rosenkavalier-like waltz that appears seems to come out of nowhere before being subsumed into cloudy skies. But how well the Trondheim strings negotiate the tricky opening of the finale, so busy against threatening low strings. Norwegian conductor Eivind Aadland is clearly a fine orchestral trainer.

The siren comes as a bit of a surprise. This is more like apocalyptic Scriabin than Wagner, although the actual climax is markedly more dissonant than either, when it comes.

The entire piece lasts around 43 minutes; the companion piece, Jesus i Gethsemane, Op. 14 (Jesus in Gethsemane) is about half that at 22:15. But it, too, is replete with expansive melodies. Premiered in 1904, thee are some decidedly Wagneriam moments in this score, perhaps unsurprisingly, side-glances to Parsifal.

Like Wagner, too, Borgstrøm uses a network of themes to create a musical tapestry. Borgstrøm's scoring is often highly effective: like Zemlinsky, he can create very late-Romantic complex textures and contrast that with almost fairy-take lightness (as in , here, the passages for solo violin against delicate background). Here's the first section:

Th booklet also includes the "Thought Prologue," which was to be read before Tanken and, in regard to Jesus i Gethsemane, actually gives music examples fo he "Fate" motif, a "Judas motif", and a "compassion" motif," among other examples.

If Jesus does not glow with the sublime spiritual light of Parsifal, it does come with intensity, and Borgstrøm builds his climaxes well, often through ascending sequences (conversely, post-climactic bliss is achieved through pitch descent). Trondheim orchestra again gives its all; only occasionally here, the strings do seem a little tested. But, it has to be said, all credit to the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra for decoding this massive score so well, and to the cpo engineers. Here's the final section of Jesus:

The disc is available on Amazon here. Streaming links below (curiously, his disc seems no to be on iDagio).