This album presents orchestral works by Swedish composer **Ingvar Lidholm**, composed between 1944 and 1958—a period that marks his emergence as one of the most original voices in Scandinavian music. Performed by the **Norrköping Symphony Orchestra** under **Lü Jia**, and featuring **soprano Lena Nordin** in three of the works, the recording captures Lidholm’s stylistic evolution from late Romanticism to modernist experimentation.
Toccata e canto (1944) marked Lidholm’s orchestral debut. The Toccata is vibrant and rhythmically driven, with influences from his teacher Hilding Rosenberg, while the Canto unfolds as a deeply lyrical, folk-inflected Nordic song.
Concerto for String Orchestra (1945/1948) is a reworking of an early string quartet. It reveals Lidholm’s skill in fusing baroque polyphony with modern expression—romantic yet structurally refined.
Three Songs (1940–45), originally written for voice and piano and later orchestrated, are short, elegiac works reflecting a simple, expressive lyricism rooted in Swedish romantic traditions.
Music for Strings (1952), adapted from a string quartet, is intense and at times dissonant, balancing lyrical lines with dramatic contrast and signaling a turn toward Lidholm’s more modern idiom.
Ritornell (1954), his first major orchestral work, blends pointillistic textures, refrains, and vivid orchestration. It won Sweden’s prestigious Christ Johnson Prize and helped establish Lidholm’s international reputation.
Together, these works highlight the composer’s imaginative range and clear structural thinking, charting the transition from tradition to avant-garde in Swedish music.
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