Ingrid Eksell (soprano)
Gunnar de Frumerie (piano)
Radiotjanet Symphony Orchestra
(Leader,Ernst Tornqvist )
Conductor, Tor Mann
Gosta Nystroem, who is a painter. as well as a musician, was born at Silfsberg in Dalecarlia in 1890. He studied in Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Paris, and is now one of the leading Swedish composers of the more advanced school. His works include four symphonies, a ballet, a concerto each for viola and cello, and a good deal of dramatic music written for the theatre at Gothenburg. His ' Sinfonia espressiva ' was broadcast in the Third Programme last December. ' Sinfonia del mare,' which is dedicated ' to alt sailors of the seven seas,' is Nystroem's most recent work. He began to write it on the Isle of Capri and completed it early this year at Marstrand on the west coast of Sweden.
By reason of his position as conductor of the orchestra at Gothenburg and his y strong personality, Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927) exercised great influence on Swedish music. A friend of Sibelius, many of whose works he introduced to Sweden, Stenhammar derived his own style largely from the classical masters. He wrote a symphony, two piano concertos, and six string quartets.
Born in 1908, Gunnar de Frumerie won fame as a pianist and composer before he was twenty, gaining a number of important prizes. His Variations and Fugue were first performed at the Nordic Music Festival in Oslo in 1934, with the composer as soloist. The work was first heard in this country five years ago when it was broadcast with Frank Merrick playing the piano and Clarence Raybould conducting. Harold Rutland