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Reviews
The Love Trilogy for orchestra
Marie Samuelsson
Guy Rickard Gramophone review The Love Trilogy CD 2019
Physicality, Intellect, Rhythm, Force of Personality—these are the defining aspects, the watchwords, of Marie Samuelsson’s music. Physicality is a quality felt throughout her output, most spectacularly, perhaps, in the terrifyingly (and terrifically) elemental Air-Drum IIIfor orchestra (1999), with its huge metal drum constructed from a metal air duct which sets the entire atmosphere vibrating. Intellect is an ever-present element throughout her oeuvre, best exemplified where it demands something of the listener as well, whether in her electro-acoustic output, the grippingly atmospheric In the Eye of the Wolf (I vargens öga, 1997), or I Am – Are You? (2001), where an onstage solo horn duets with an offstage sampled voice, or her acclaimed violin concerto Bastet Solgudinnan (2004, named from the Egyptian goddess who every night killed the snake-demon Apep to allow the sun to rise next day), one of Samuelsson’s most substantial utterances. Her brilliant use of Rhythm as a binding structural agent in her music can be heard in the impressive string orchestral Rotations (1997, revised 2003), a brilliantly conceived textural fantasia on intertwining tempi and in the chamber-orchestral Flow (2000), where the listener’s ear is taunted and caressed simultaneously. The immediacy of expression of her music, instantly recognizable as hers, is testament to the Force of her musical Personality, as in the mesmerizing Airborne Lines and Rumbles (2009) or Singla (2007), arguably her finest orchestral work to date.
All these elements unite in her largest work to date, the two-act chamber opera, Jorun – orm i öga (“Jorun Snake Eye”; 2012-3). Lasting around fifty-four minutes, this is a deeply affecting and atmospheric tale of hope, naivety, betrayal, loss and (at length) a hard-won understanding of existence. Jorun is also the composer’s richest score in terms of instrumental resource (despite the relative modest forces employed: a clutch of soloists, chamber chorus and chamber ensemble) and expressive depth. It marks both the high point of a period of mostly chamber composition but also the start of a new expressive area: music overtly exploring Love in all its forms. Jorun’s scale is also carried over in Samuelsson’s latest major project, one which may have particular resonances for the newly betrothed composer—well, in 2015—as she turns 60 (as of February 16th this year), a ”Love Trilogy” (Kärlekstrilogi; 2015-6). If Love in all its forms lies at the heart of Jorun and, indeed, the micro-opera Why Would I Not Believe in Love? that followed in 2014), it is even more so in Kärlekstrilogi. The opening work is Aphrodite – Fragments by Sappho, a radiant 21-minute cantata for mezzo soprano and orchestra, although in form it can also be viewed as a continuous song cycle, setting five brief stanzas by the Greek Poetess. One of these was discovered only as recently as 2014 and is set her—as the centerpiece—in Jesper Svenbro’s translation (Kyprispoem). Its expressive theme, like that of Sappho’s familiar verses, is erotic love, of the possessive desire for a woman that in turn possesses the lover. In musical terms it builds on the lithe vocal lines and instrumental depth of Jorun – orm i öga, the composition of which now seems an enabler for the Kärlekstrilogi. One extraordinary passage sees some of Sappho’s words declaimed in whispers by mebers of the orchestra! The cantata will receive its world premiere in Stockholm in March by Katija Dragojevic and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Blendulf.
The central span of the trilogy is A New Child of Infinity, a smaller-scale clarinet concertino, roughly half the length of Aphrodite and inspired by a poem of the Swedish poet Göran Sonnevi (b1939), the recipient of the Nordic Council’s 2006 Literature Prize. Here, the focus is on the love of a child, so it is no surprise that A New Child of Infinity is dedicated to the composer’s two sons. Whether this was a factor governing the choice of a smaller orchestra than Afrodite with no clarinets—aside from the bass instrument—or tuba and only pairs of horns and percussionists, is unclear. On the page the score seems unusually sparse in texture, the orchestra used with delicacy around the whirling clarinet soloist who plays almost incessantly. That this concertino is slighter in build and duration, however, does not mean it is lesser in quality or importance to the trilogy as a whole. It was premiered in Malmö on 28th November 2015 by Johnny Teyssier with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marc Soustrot.
The final panel in the trilogy is still a work in progress at the time of writing, so has not been released yet. It bears the intriguing title of The Eros Effect and Soldarity, a reference to the work of the South Korean-resident North American writer and social activist George Nicholas Katsiaficas (b1949), the ethos of which can be explored readily on the website www.eroseffect.com. Marie Samuelsson interprets the “Eros Effect” as “the notion that the private love spills over into solidarity, moved out in charity and become a social movement.” Added to her expressed opinion that “Hatred and violence are taking too much space in the media and in social media today, while love is difficult to approach, on a philosophical level” and it is clear that The Eros Effect and Soldarity is set to be the climax and summation of the Trilogy. This assertion will only be verified, however, at the premiere in October 2016, to be given by the work’s dedicatees, the Nordic Chamber Orchestra directed by Sarah Ioannides.
Physicality, Intellect, Rhythm, Force of Personality—these have been the defining aspects, the watchwords, of Marie Samuelsson’s music hitherto. Love now needs to be added to the list.
reviews Air Drum CD
Leif Aare, Dagens Nyheter: Air Drum is on top three of the Cd recommendations of the year 2003. ”Marie Samuelsson is one of Sweden’s most important composers.” “In the power of her sonority- and sound fantasy she’s building up a musical drama play of sound and sound imitations.”
Stig Jacobsson in In Hi-Fi music: ”Air Drum is on top of the CD-track list ’Svenska godbitar’. ”Marie Samuelsson is one of our leading composers.” “The music on the disc, all together, shows a very brilliant picture of a true music artist.”
Guy Rickards Gramophone ”A fascinating collection of pieces by a new and appealing voice in Swedish music.”…“The bracing, cascading opening of Air Drum III (1999) is a vivid example of herdeterminedly modernist idiom, but she has a very personal voice, from which fashionable stances or “ism” are absent”. “Her music is direct and immediate in appeal, primarily through its vividly defined and exciting rhythmic qualities.” … “Her keen ear for sonority is manifest in varying degrees throughout this fine disc”… “Phono Suecia and the various players have done Samuelsson proud here topnotch performances caught in the firstrate recordings that really take one inside the composers sound-world. Heartily recommended for even the mildly adventurous.”
Hubert Culot Classical Music Web.
”Marie Samuelsson, whose music was new to me, is a distinguished composer who is not afraid of using the whole gamut of modern techniques, when they suit her purposes. She has a clear view of how she wants her music to communicate. Her music, by turns disarmingly simple or overtly complex; is well served here by performers of high calibre. They obviously strongly (and rightly so,I think) believe in it and play it in the most convincing way, making the best of it. I would like to hear more of this composer in the future.” “Lufttrumma III (Air Drum) … “ is a brilliant and noisy concert opener with many arresting orchestral sounds.” “Krom (Chrome) for brass quintet is a splendid work” …” This is the kind of stuff that should appeal to all brass quintets looking for some unfamiliar, worthwhile new works, fairly virtuosic at times.” “Flow for chamber ensemble displays another facet of Samuelsson’s music, which is almost minimalist here, but more like the music of Louis Andriessen than that of Steve Reich.” ” Rotationer (Rotations) for string orchestra. This is a minor master-piece and should be eagerly taken-up by string orchestras.” ”Den natten (That Night) for mixed chorus is probably the most readily accessible work here. It provides for an appeased, easy-going conclusion to this worthwhile survey of Samuelsson’s often gripping,tense, uncompromising but highly communicative music.”