Moses Pergament, Volume Two: Songs
The Swedish composer Moses Pergament (1893-1977) — Finnish-born of Lithuanian-Jewish stock — chose the poems he set to music from a wide range of sources: those heard in this first-ever recording of his songs are mostly in Swedish but also in a variety of other languages. They likewise cover the gamut of human emotion, from buoyant folksongs and children’s verses via lyrical expressions of love and loss to stark meditations on suffering and death. Many of Pergament’s poets evoke the natural world in their expression of emotion, but his music never yields to sentimentality: he treats each song as a microcosm, expressed with drama and dignity. Time was when Pergament’s vocal music was performed by singers of the calibre of Birgit Nilsson, Elisabeth Söderström and Nicolai Gedda; it is high time it was rediscovered.
Tuuli Lindeberg, soprano
Martin Malmgren, piano
Listen To This Recording:
- A klap hot gegeben der Wint (1909-16/1966) (3:15)
- Zwei Kammern hat das Herz (1911, revised) (1:14)
- Kung Liv och Drottning Död (1915) (4:47)*
Två sånger (1916) (3:30)
- No. 1, Kväll i skogen* (2:35)
- No. 2, Barnet og faaret (0:55)
- Erster Verlust (1916) (2:07)
- Der jungen Hexe Lied (1919, rev. 1966) (2:37)
- Die Quelle der Schmerzen (1921) (2:31)
- Torra trädets klagan (1931) (2:22)
Nyckelpigan och andra visor för barn (1932)
- No. 3, Långt bort i skogen (2:20)
4 lustiga och 4 sorgmodiga folkvisor (1936) (13:55)
- No. 1, Rocken snurrar, lampan brinner (1:08)
- No. 2, Men liljorna de växa upp om våren (2:07)
- No. 3, Jag gick mej ut åt vägen (1:17)
- No. 4, De sporde om skön Särling (2:10)
- No. 5, Skomakarevisan (1:54)
- No. 6, Ge mej hit lite bläck och en penna (2:54)
- No. 7, Säckpipan (0:33)
- No. 8, Nödårsvisan (1:52)
- Vårnatt i Ajalon (1941) (5:04)
Fyra kinesiska sånger (1946) (9:33)
- No. 1, Lyssnande till en nattlig flöjt från Shou-Hsingmuren (2:35)
- No. 2, En suck från en trappa av jade (1:05)
- No. 3, Bitter kärlek (2:17)
- No. 4, Gränslös längtan (3:36)
- Ett är nödvändigt (1950, revised) (4:59)
- L’infidèle (1951) (3:32)
- Sono stanca (1971) (3:38)
- Natten sænker sit mørke Slør (1970) (2:14)
- Vaggvisa (1971) (2:41)
First Recordings
*First Modern Recordings
Keskisuomalainen :
‘In overall character the music is late-Romantic, with a gently modernizing edge; flashes of jazz appear at times, and an exoticized China brings moments of pentatonic colour. Pergament’s musical language animates a wide range of textual sources with refined sensitivity. The spirit of the texts sometimes ignites slowly, sometimes sparkles with richly descriptive force. Short and compact in duration, the songs range from foundational existential poetry to subtly wise children’s ditties. Soprano Tuuli Lindeberg is one of the most significant exponents of our time in both contemporary art music and the Baroque.
Her artistry is evident in a colourfully precise, linguistically fluent and supple emotional expression across the texts’ layered and charged turns. Martin Malmgren’s sensitively intuitive pianism ennobles the musical performance, while his equally thoughtful introductory texts elevate the whole to a high-quality recording.’
—Jari Hoffrén, Keskisuomalainen
Sonograma :
‘El disc Songs, dedicat a la producció vocal de Moses Pergament i enregistrat per Tuuli Lindeberg i Martin Malmgren per a Toccata Classics, reuneix un corpus que il·lumina zones poc transitades de la lírica nòrdica del segle XX. Pergament s’hi revela com un compositor de frontera estètica: la seva escriptura beu del postromanticisme, però incorpora uns canvis harmònics i una consciència tímbrica que el situen en diàleg amb sensibilitats més modernes. Ras i curt, és una música d’expansió expressiva.
Les cançons de Moses Pergament, compositor i director d’orquestra suec, mostren una atenció minuciosa a la paraula. La línia vocal es desplega segons la inflexió del text, amb contorns melòdics que semblen néixer de la declamació mateixa. En l’escriptura de Pergament predomina la insinuació sobre l’èmfasi. […]
Tuuli Lindeberg afronta aquest repertori amb una sobrietat expressiva molt eficaç. El seu timbre lluminós, lliure de pes innecessari, afavoreix una emissió flexible i una modulació dinàmica rica en matisos intermedis. La seva interpretació defuig la hipertrofia romàntica i opta per una interiorització del gest, cosa que correspon al caràcter sovint introspectiu d’aquestes cançons. La cura en la dicció converteix el text en el veritable motor del discurs musical.
Martin Malmgren, per la seva banda, construeix un espai sonor dúctil i respirable. L’ús del pedal i del color pianístic li permet diferenciar plans sense rigidesa, i mostra una sensibilitat notable envers el rubato expressiu que demana aquest repertori. Més que acompanyar, dialoga: cada interludi sembla prolongar l’estat emocional de la veu.
Aquest enregistrament amplia la visió de la cançó nòrdica del període, massa sovint associada només a uns quants noms canònics. En aquestes cançons s’hi descobreix un món expressiu de clarobscurs, de lirisme concentrat i d’una elegància harmònica.
El disc deixa la impressió d’haver obert una porta: al darrere hi ha, probablement, tot un repertori encara pendent de ser descobert.’
English translation:
‘The art song of the twentieth century has created a privileged space from which to observe the transformation of tonal language in an intimate register. The album Songs, devoted to the vocal output of Moses Pergament and recorded by Tuuli Lindeberg and Martin Malmgren for Toccata Classics, assembles a corpus that illuminates little-trodden areas of Nordic art song of the period. Pergament reveals himself as a composer at an aesthetic crossroads: his writing draws on post-Romanticism, yet it incorporates harmonic turns and a timbral awareness that place him in dialogue with more modern sensibilities. In short, it is music of expansive expressivity.
The songs of Moses Pergament, a Swedish composer and conductor, show a meticulous attention to the text. The vocal line unfolds according to the inflection of the words, with melodic contours that seem to arise from the declamatory impulse itself. In Pergament’s writing, suggestion predominates over emphasis. […]
Tuuli Lindeberg approaches this repertoire with highly effective expressive restraint. Her luminous timbre, free of unnecessary weight, favours a flexible vocal production and a dynamic shaping rich in subtle gradations. Her interpretation eschews excessive Romanticism, opting instead for an internalisation of the gesture, which corresponds to the often introspective character of these songs. Careful diction turns the text into the true driving force of the musical discourse.
Martin Malmgren, for his part, constructs a supple, airy sonic space. His use of pedal and pianistic colour allows him to delineate layers without rigidity, and he shows a remarkable sensitivity to the expressive rubato this repertoire requires. Rather than merely accompanying, he enters into dialogue: each interlude seems to prolong the emotional state of the voice.
This recording broadens our view of Nordic song from the period — far too often associated with only a handful of canonical names. Within these songs one discovers an expressive world of light and shade, of concentrated lyricism and of refined harmonic elegance.
The album leaves the impression of having opened a door: behind it lies, quite possibly, an entire repertoire still waiting to be discovered.’
—Josep Bosch, Sonograma