Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alun Francis. John-Edward Kelly as the soloist.
I - Frenetico (0:00) - Cantabile espressivo (7:52) - [III] (12:15) - [IV] (17:41)
Pettersson's Symphony No.16 was composed between May and August 1979, being commissioned by saxophonist Frederick Hemke. It was the last piece he completed before his death by cancer in June 1980. Hemke had heard Pettersson's Seventh Symphony and requested the composer a piece featuring the saxophone. Instead of receiving a reply, the composer sent the completed score. Pettersson thus created a unique work in his entire production: a symphony for saxophone and orchestra. It was posthumously premiered on February 24 of 1983, performed by the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yriy Ahronovitch, with Hemke as the soloist.
The composer originally referred to the work as a Saxophone Concerto, something prevented him from regarding it as either a true concerto or symphony. That the term concerto was not completely suitable may have been owing to the fact that the soloist doesn't have the traditional virtuosic passages where they can show off, interspersed with a number of orchestral interludes. When Hemke saw the work he noticed how the saxophone part did not fully exploit the instrument in Pettersson's own terms. With the permission of the publishers, he prepared his own edition which is recorded here. The Lindberg recording features the original scoring, and for the listener it may be interesting to compare both.
The Sixteenth Symphony is short by the standards of Pettersson’s symphonies, with a duration of around 25 minutes – similar to that of Nos 10 and 11. Like the Fourth Symphony, the Sixteenth employs a musical language that encompasses wide stylistic differences. The opening itself is wild and intense (the score is marked frenetico) and the free-tonal language in the introduction contrasts with the Romantic, occasionally "jazz-scented" style in the slow, calm section that begins a little later in the symphony. After this calm passage, the symphony is once again marked by a frenetic atmosphere in a free-tonal idiom. Tonal points of reference – around which the listener can orient himself – are present, but are few and far between. The music is characterized by tension – a tension that is resolved in the symphony’s simple, tonal and peaceful ending.
Picture: "Green Ballet" (1960) by the Danish artist Asger Jorn.
Sources: tinyurl.com/254sok2g and tinyurl.com/2bduohem
Unfortunately, the score is not freely available.
Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alun Francis. John-Edward Kelly as the soloist.
I - Frenetico (0:00) - Cantabile espressivo (7:52) - [III] (12:15) - [IV] (17:41)
Pettersson's Symphony No.16 was composed between May and August 1979, being commissioned by saxophonist Frederick Hemke. It was the last piece he completed before his death by cancer in June 1980. Hemke had heard Pettersson's Seventh Symphony and requested the composer a piece featuring the saxophone. Instead of receiving a reply, the composer sent the completed score. Pettersson thus created a unique work in his entire production: a symphony for saxophone and orchestra. It was posthumously premiered on February 24 of 1983, performed by the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yriy Ahronovitch, with Hemke as the soloist.
The composer originally referred to the work as a Saxophone Concerto, something prevented him from regarding it as either a true concerto or symphony. That the term concerto was not completely suitable may have been owing to the fact that the soloist doesn't have the traditional virtuosic passages where they can show off, interspersed with a number of orchestral interludes. When Hemke saw the work he noticed how the saxophone part did not fully exploit the instrument in Pettersson's own terms. With the permission of the publishers, he prepared his own edition which is recorded here. The Lindberg recording features the original scoring, and for the listener it may be interesting to compare both.
The Sixteenth Symphony is short by the standards of Pettersson’s symphonies, with a duration of around 25 minutes – similar to that of Nos 10 and 11. Like the Fourth Symphony, the Sixteenth employs a musical language that encompasses wide stylistic differences. The opening itself is wild and intense (the score is marked frenetico) and the free-tonal language in the introduction contrasts with the Romantic, occasionally "jazz-scented" style in the slow, calm section that begins a little later in the symphony. After this calm passage, the symphony is once again marked by a frenetic atmosphere in a free-tonal idiom. Tonal points of reference – around which the listener can orient himself – are present, but are few and far between. The music is characterized by tension – a tension that is resolved in the symphony’s simple, tonal and peaceful ending.
Picture: "Green Ballet" (1960) by the Danish artist Asger Jorn.
Sources: tinyurl.com/254sok2g and tinyurl.com/2bduohem
Unfortunately, the score is not freely available.
