Allan Pettersson is now considered one of the most important Swedish composers of the 20th century. In his lifetime, he had several champions but stood outside the musical mainstream, with his large-scaled, expressively grim scores. A Honegger pupil, his life wasn't easy: a violent, alcoholic father, and a mid-life diagnosis of crippling arthritis. Still, he continued composing to the end. His entire symphonic legacy--effectively 15, since the first and seventeenth were unfinished--have now been recorded complete, though a few have multiple recordings to their credit.

This volume includes his single-movement Fourteenth Symphony. It took form under more happy circumstances than were usual for the composer. Having written numerous works that drew international attention and commissions, the Swedish government finally awarded the poverty-stricken Pettersson an attractive apartment, one with a garden. According to his wife, he gave him much enjoyment that even overshadowed his recent diagnosis with cancer. Despite this, he remains uncompromising, and the Fourteenth is as vigorous a depiction of despair and defiant hope as any symphonic work that came out of the 20th century.


Bio enclosed. You can find all my classical uploads by searching on Philidor, or checking this thread:
 
https://pirates-forum.org/Thread-Philidor-s-uploads--63895