Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra, Leif Segerstam - Pettersson: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 11 (1993)

Allan Pettersson (1911-1980) is one of the main influences in the music of Leif Segerstam, so it makes perfect sense for Segerstam to conduct Petterrson's symphonies. Pettersson was able, in his early symphonies, to maintain at once a sense of thematic drive as well as a dark presentiment of atonal forces. Tricky, but both Pettersson and Segerstam--in his own symphonies--pull it off. The Symphony 7 (1968) contains rough moods, dark clouds, with brightness (on the flute and woodwinds) peeking in here and there throughout. The Symphony 11 (of 1974) is full of polyphonic shifts and syncopations that sweep the listener along. --Paul Cook