A Winter's Tale (Larsson)

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A Winter's Tale
by Lars-Erik Larsson
The composer
Native nameEn vintersaga
Opus18
Composed1938 (1938)
PublisherGehrmans Musikförlag [sv] (1945)
DurationApprox. 9 minutes[1]
Movements4

A Winter's Tale (in Swedish: En vintersaga; subtitled: Four Vignettes after Shakespeare (Fyra vinjetter till Shakespeares)), Op. 18, is a four-movement suite for orchestra written from 1937 to 1938 by Swedish composer Lars-Erik Larsson. The Epilogue (No. 4) is often performed and recorded as a stand-alone concert piece.

Background[edit]

Beginning in 1937, the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation—the country's national, publicly funded radio—employed Larsson as a composer-in-residence, music producer, and conductor;[2] his main task was to write music to accompany various radio programs.[3] One of Larsson's colleagues was the Swedish poet Hjalmar Gullberg, who had joined Swedish Radio the year before and headed its drama division.[4] Together, the two men developed a genre of popular entertainment they called the "lyrical suite",[a] which alternated recited poetry with musical interludes.[5][4][6] Larsson's first commission of this type was to compose four orchestral vignettes to accompany the 1938 radio recitation of a Swedish-language translation Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale; he subsequently published these as A Winter's Tale.

Structure[edit]

A Winter's Tale, which lasts about 9 to 10 minutes, is in four movements. They are as follows:[1]

  1. Siciliana: Andantino
  2. Intermezzo: Allegro leggiero
  3. Pastoral: Allegretto pastorale
  4. Epilogue (Epilog): Andante

Instrumentation[edit]

A Winter's Tale is scored the following instruments:[1]

Gehrmans Musikförlag [sv] published the suite in 1945.[1]

Recordings[edit]

The sortable table below lists commercially available recordings of A Winter's Tale:

No. Conductor Orchestra Rec.[b] Time Recording venue Label Ref.
1 Stig Westerberg Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra 1977 10:19 Stockholm Concert Hall Swedish Society Discofil [sv]
[c]
2 Jan-Olav Wedin Stockholm Sinfonietta 1980 10:24 Cirkus BIS
[d]
3 Mario Bernardi CBC Vancouver Orchestra 1992 10:02 Orpheum CBC Records
[e]
4 Dorrit Matson New York Scandia Symphony 2001 10:53 Trinity Church Centaur
[f]
5 Christopher Warren-Green Jönköping Sinfonietta 2002 9:51 Jönköping Concert Hall Intim Musik [sv]
[g]
6 Alexander Hanson Norrköping Symphony Orchestra 2009 10:51 De Geerhallen Naxos
[h]
7 Andrew Manze Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra [sv] 2011 10:19 Helsingborg Concert Hall [sv] cpo
[i]

Notes, references, and sources[edit]

Notes
  1. ^ The original Swedish is "lyrisk svit".
  2. ^ Refers to the year in which the performers recorded the work; this may not be the same as the year in which the recording was first released to the general public.
  3. ^ S. Westerberg–Swedish Society (SCD 1051) 1997
  4. ^ J. Wedin–BIS (CD–165) 1988
  5. ^ M. Bernardi–CBC (SMCD5157) 1996
  6. ^ D. Matson–Centaur (CRC2607) 2002
  7. ^ C. Warren-Green–Intim Musik (IMCD 082) 2003
  8. ^ A. Hanson–Naxos (8.572339) 2009
  9. ^ A. Manze–cpo (777 671–2) 2014
References
  1. ^ a b c d Gehrmans Musikförlag.
  2. ^ Schlüren 2014, p. 14.
  3. ^ Nyström 1993, p. 6.
  4. ^ a b Skans 1989, p. 2.
  5. ^ Schlüren 2014, p. 15.
  6. ^ Lundin 2002, p. 2.
Sources
  • "En vintersaga: Fyra vinjetter" [The Winter's Tale: Four vignettes]. gehrmans.se. Gehrmans Musikförlag. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  • Lundin, Peter (2002). Lars-Erik Larsson: God in Disguise / Little Serenade, Op. 12 / Winter's Tale, Op. 18 / Pastoral Suite, Op. 19 (CD booklet). Translated by Schenck, Linda. Christopher Warren-Green & Jönköping Sinfonietta. Intim musik. p. 2–3. IMCD 082. OCLC 53054794
  • Nyström, Martin (1993). Lars-Erik Larsson: Förklädd Gud (God in Disguise) / Pastoral Suite / Violin Concerto (CD booklet). Esa-Pekka Salonen & Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Sony Classical. p. 6–7. SK 64140. OCLC 34697048
  • Schlüren, Christoph (2014). Lars-Erik Larsson: Symphony No. 1 / Music for Orchestra / Lyric Fantasy (CD booklet). Translated by Robinson, J. Bradford. Andrew Manze & Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. cpo. p. 13–17. 777 671–2. OCLC 880851753
  • Skans, Per (1989). Lars-Erik Larsson: Förklädd Gud (God in Disguise), Op. 24 / Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 34 (CD booklet). Sten Frykberg & Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. BIS. p. 2–4. CD–96. OCLC 21568279
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