The trouble with incidental music is much the same as listening to a film score. Much of the music is tied to the visuals, not as a singular musical experience. Thus incidental music can often feel secondary to what was meant to accompany or invigorate stage actions.
Incidental Music tends to be in very short bites, with tracks timing at 45 seconds to two-or-three minutes. Invariably with Stenhammar, the music is beautiful, but here its scope is rather slight.
As You Like It is the more substantial offering, with 24 parts in 13 tracks, or perhaps there are missing sections from the original. Fanfares bandy with vocal solos and choral numbers, and there are a few introspective orchestral pieces too. The most substantial is No. 18's six-minute Lento, although the Helsingborg strings sound tentative here, where the rest sounds happily excellent.
Similar to this is Stenhammar's music for Romeo and Juliet. Whereas in As You Like It, I get more of the composer's modal, Romantic language, in Romeo & Juliet, there is a Neo-Renaissance flavor to the music. The orchestral scale is more chamber-focused too, and the scope of the work is rather short.
If I ever feel like I am missing the stage action with any of this music, it is in A Dream Play. The spoken word only occurs in a five-minute chunk towards the beginning, but a lot of what happens here musically is murky and slow-moving, as if I am missing a visual element. That said, this is probably the most modern sounding I have heard Stenhammar, even if his conservative style will never truly define modernism.
The liner notes focus on the ties between Stenhammar and the Swedish stage. If I have a druther, I am expected to have heard of A Dream Play by Strindberg, so little is shared of its plot synopsis. Luckily, song texts and spoken texts are provided, so I can piece together this and that.
I was most impressed by the playing of the Helsingborg players and singers. Certainly those who like to explore the lesser-known music of Stenhammar should have a lot to delve into here. I find his incidental music all pleasant, if not slight, yet the same would apply to Sibelius and Vaughan Williams in this same genre.
Listen on YouTube
Work
As You Like It (27.09)
A Dream Play (16.30)
Romeo and Juliet (16.43)
Soloists
Helen Finnberg, soprano
Caroline Sjoberg, soprano
Peter Boman, baritone
Carl Andersson, oboe
Magnus Nilsson, bassoon
Hedvig Lagerkvist, narrator
Thomas Ungewitter, narrator
Ensembles
Holsingborg Concert Hall Choir
Holsingborg Symphony Orchestra
Arvo Volmer, conductor
Label: Sterling
Year: 2001
Timing: 62.43
As with most incidental music, Stenhammar's is pleasant but slight, with nothing substantial to really latch on to.
Even the longer, single movement A Dream Play has more undercurrents of music to be played with action than anything with musical development.
Still, a great way to spend time with Stenhammar's orchestra music.
Find more Stenhammar recordings HERE!
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