By NH100270
12-Jul-2012

Imperfect beauty on bleak byways  

Finnish composer Pehr Henrik Nordgren's Symphony for Strings pushes the listener along a mazy and darkling path where feelings of necessity and defiance arise. The ebb and flow of the strings convey a grave determination, but can the aims of this determination be achieved (unlikely)? Deranged emotions merge with inescapable reality generating consuming shadows and delusive dead-ends. There is no way out of the internal labyrinth.

The Concerto for Strings continues in the vein of the string symphony, yet here we discover a tinge more optimism, albeit somewhat unhinged or damaged; the second phase, for instance, erupts into what feels like an absurdist dance. The final phase of the concerto builds dreamily towards a state of forlorn fulfillment.

The Whole World Will Lament is a short and memorable tone poem which is at once poignant, solemn and inspiring.
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