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Scandinavian
works Liljefors
birthright

Scandinavian Musical Odyssey: The Honolulu Symphony, 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, Blaisdell Concert Hall, $15-$55. Call 792-2000.

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By Ruth O. Bingham
Special to the Star-Bulletin

WESTERN art music (sometimes called "classical") has become startlingly international. Germans sing about Japanese in Italian to Australian audiences; Argentinians enjoy Canadian symphonies; an orchestra in Hawaii plays Scandinavian works.

However international the tradition, there is something unique, something untranslatable about each of those styles that lies dormant until brought to life by an artist born into that style. It is an understanding learned in the cradle and rocked into one's bones.

When guest conductor Mats Liljefors of Sweden led the Honolulu Symphony in yesterday's concert devoted to Nordic composers, the orchestra took on a new sound; familiar works presented unexpected insights.

Liljefors conducted music by Norway's Edvard Grieg, Sweden's Gustaf Bengtsson, and Finland's Jean Sibelius, including such favorites as Sibelius's "Finlandia" and Grieg's "Peer Gynt" Suite No.1, as well as the practically unknown "Vättern" by Bengtsson. Lying somewhere between those two extremes was Sibelius' Symphony No. 2, a long and demanding work that filled the second half.

Working sometimes with, sometimes without a score, Liljefors commanded passionate playing without resorting to physical histrionics. He sculpted the orchestra carefully, eliciting generally excellent intonation, balance and phrasing. His tempos were impeccable.

Although Nordic style in music can be explained in open harmonies and scoring, compelling bass lines and modal themes, perhaps its most noteworthy difference is the way motives build into large-scale structures, rather like Denmark's Legos.

Sibelius composed in "choirs" of instruments, and his brass choirs are almost a trademark. In both "Finlandia" and Symphony No.2, Honolulu's brass section sounded better than ever: powerful, virile, well-balanced. Wonderful!

Numerous soloists shone as well, especially with Grieg, who composed more for individual "voices": flutist Susan McGinn, bassoonist Paul Barrett, and especially oboist Scott Janusch, one of the orchestra's finest.

Bengtsson's pleasant "Vättern," named after Sweden's second largest lake, suffered through comparison with more tightly crafted works. Composed in 1949, its conservative late Romantic style sounded more like the film music than symphonic music of the time.

Sibelius delivered the concert's highlights, beginning with Liljefors's moving rendition of "Finlandia" and ending with his majestic reading of Symphony No. 2. More than any other piece in the concert, the symphony came alive in performance as it rarely does in recordings. That, surely, was at least in part because of Liljefors's understanding, an understanding born of tradition.

As Liljefors explained, "My father and my grandfather were conductors; I didn't dare break the family tradition." Their tradition flourishes in Liljefors's hands.

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