Kurt Atterberg - Violin Sonata, Trio Concertante, Höstballader, Valse monotone, Rondeau Rétrospectif (1993)

Following on from the disc of chamber works that I reviewed last September (actually designated as Vol. 2) comes another (Vol. 1!) also featuring the B minor Sonata, Op. 27, this time in its incarnation for solo violin (there are others for viola and cello; perhaps these will feature on future volumes). I prefer the version for horn but there is much to be said for Eszter Perenyi's account, an occasional rawness of tone aside. She and Ilona Prunyi respond to Atterberg's Nordic romanticism with a Hungarian warmth and full-bloodedness that is most engaging. Prunyi also gives spirited accounts of the two Autumn Ballads of 1918 (Atterberg's only original score for solo piano) and the Valse monotone. This last is well known as the finale of the Suite No. 3 for violin, viola and strings, one of this composer's most enduringly popular works, which originated in incidental music for a Maeterlinck play. The Valse's performance here in Atterberg's own transcription (apparently made as a display-piece for a ballerina) is marred by a sloppy edit. Prunyi appears again in the jolly Rondeau retrospectif, which was submitted pseudonymously for a competition in 1926, winning third prize (as Stig Jacobsson's notes point out, Atterberg's official entry won it outright). The disc is completed in entertaining if unremarkable fashion by the Trio concertante in G minor and C. As with Vol. 2 this is an arrangement made in 1966 of an orchestral score, in this case the late Double Concerto for violin and cello (1960). The disc's documentation does not assign players to pieces, nor does it detail the scoring of the Rondeau or Trio, which is rather remiss.'