The Nordic Chamber Orchestra was formed in 1990 in the Swedish town of Sundvalls, 
which happens to be at the exact geographical center of the region we think of 
as Scandinavia. With a core ensemble of 30 extremely gifted players, it's 
capable of handling a wide range of repertoire and has already become an 
important force in regional music, by commissioning many new works and reviving 
unjustly neglected ones. The orchestra had a highly effective Asian tour in the 
summer of 2007, and this release typifies its calling-card programs: one 
selection by a composer from each of the Nordic countries. Two of the selections 
are (relatively) well known; the rest, I suspect, will be new and fascinating 
discoveries for most listeners.

Nielsen's String Serenade, his Opus 1, is sometimes rather condescendingly 
listed as "Little" Suite, though 14 minutes of fully mature Nielsen is hardly a 
miniature. This may be the most charming and persuasive performance I've ever 
encountered. Johan Svendsen (1840-1911) ranks just below Grieg in the pantheon 
of Norwegian composers. Svendsen was a virtuoso violinist, and he knew how to 
make the instrument sing--his 8-minute Romance brims with tuneful optimism. 
Anyone familiar with this composer's lovely Norwegian Rhapsodies will find this 
unpretentious piece a lovely pendant to those works, and soloist Richard 
Tognetti plays it with affection and superb assurance.

This is my first encounter with any music by Anders Wesstrom (1720-81), a native 
of Stockholm who studied extensively with Tartini and other distinguished 
colleagues before returning to Sweden. The overture to his opera Armidia is 
hardly memorable music, but it's very well-crafted and attractive; it could 
easily have been composed by, oh, Michael Haydn, perhaps. Nothing "Nordic" here, 
but at the time it was composed, musicians in Scandinavia were expected to 
emulate their European role models, and Wesstrom did, with considerable skill.

Next comes a drop-dead whacko of a piece by the maverick Icelandic composer Jon 
Leifs (1899-1968), best known to record collectors (if he's known at all) by his 
craggy, yawping, asymmetrical, almost Ivesian Saga Symphony (which has been 
recorded twice, and the better rendition--interestingly enough--was led by 
Sibelius's son-in-law, Jussi Jalas!). Leif's point-of-departure in these 
strikingly original variations is a pleasant, rather innocuous theme from 
Beethoven's Opus 9 Serenade, which the orchestra barely has time to set forth 
before Leifs turns it into a Viking chain--dance, with great stomping 
drum-beats, ceremonial tamtams, and brawny hornpipes. It's a knock-out, 
especially in the kind of wildly exuberant treatment Lindberg elicits from his 
players. It's such exciting, unpredictable music that it could easily catch on 
with other orchestras. I loved it; what else haven't we heard by this stubborn 
iconoclast?

Bo Linde, who died far too young at age 37, had the misfortune of being inclined 
to write sparkling, witty music at a time when the grim austerity of post-war 
Modernism was considered the only style worth taking seriously. Callously 
marginalized, he spent most of his creative life in isolation, composing good-
hearted, finely wrought music that nobody wanted to perform. This delightful 
concerto for wind quintet and strings puts me in mind of Benjamin Britten at his 
most urbane, and if this work be indicative of Linde's mature style--he left a 
catalog of some 40 finished works--then a revival of interest in his music is 
clearly overdue, for it's both easy-on-the-ear and quite sophisticated. One 
hopes that this recording will inspire such a reappraisal.

The program closes with Sibelius's brooding miniature tone poem, the deceptively 
named Impromptu for Strings. Only eight minutes long, this minor composition is 
really a small-scale tone poem, offering a full helping of the wistful 
melancholy that Sibelius could evoke as no other composer could. The unison 
pianissimo playing in the raptly inward passages that open and close the piece 
is just breathtaking--indeed, this may be the most moving performance of this 
small masterpiece ever recorded.

In sum, this is a very well chosen smorgasbord of Nordic music, a cunning 
mixture of the known and the truly novel. Every selection is played with the 
utmost feeling and with gemlike purity of tone. I look forward to more 
recordings from this fine ensemble and its very gifted conductor, who already 
enjoys a worldwide reputation as a virtuoso trombonist! 

  --William Trotter