Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Antal Doráti.

I - Beginning (0:00) - Three measures after No.23 (6:04) - One measure before No.35 (10:06) - Five measures after No.53 (14:58) - After No.69 (19:11)

Pettersson's Symphony No.10 was composed between 1970-2. Designed during the nine months he remained in a Karolinska Hospital for a life-threatening kidney ailment, presumably triggered by the medication he was taking for rheumatoid arthritis. Considered the hardest of his symphonies, the composer himself described it "as a punch in the face." In it, he expresses all his suffering from this tragic period. The work was first performed on Swedish television by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, again conducted by Antal Doráti, on January 14 of 1974.

Composed in a single movement in a more condensed form than in its previous symphonies. To make it easier to understand, we have divided it into five sections. The first section begins with an exposition of brief sequences in the form of fast changing ideas. These ideas are repeated in a confusing way, reaching their climax, but never achieving a triumph. After a decrease in tension, the second section starts. In it, the repetitions continue in an obsessive way creating an oddly depressive climate. The rhythm increases in the final part, leading to the third section. The music becomes rougher showing all its brutality.

We find a sudden change in the fourth section, the music seems to soften, expressing itself in broader forms. But soon a new diabolical march appears that leads us to a strangely lyrical form, as if a hymn to hope tried to emerge. The percussion accompanies it with its typical rhythm of funeral march, but the idea does not succeed fully. At the start of the firth section we find another of Pettersson's famous lyrical islands. A clear hymn is initiated by the strings and developed by the orchestra. But unlike their previous symphonies, the diabolical forces return to attack in the final section. Again a motif for hope appears but violent entries of percussion and explosions from the brass destroy it. A cold chord says the last word before ending in brutal silence.

It is a difficult work due to its harshness, reflecting the terrible moments experienced by its author. A tremendously pessimistic work, that, unlike his previous works, does not grant almost any respite, ending tragically, practically as in the beginning. During the composition of his symphony Pettersson wrote a series of thoughts, some of which we translate below for their clarifying nature.

"You have to fear death, but not death itself. You have to fear life and man, his cruelty towards his fellow men. The angel of death is a poetic image full of hypocrisy. Death has nothing to do with mercy, due to the fact that it has a superior power of attraction, hidden behind suffering and disease. At the precise moment that its opponent, the life force, is weakened. The first end was life, not death. When it arrives, it comes as a government decree. I cannot accept it as mine, because it is not in accordance with my will to live.

Death, my faithful shadow, is nevertheless stronger than me. Or is it about HIM in person, the God who experiences himself, as a man, in another way of life? In the tunnel of death where I currently live, there are no men or gods, there is nothing alive except me, lonely and abandoned by God. In the world I currently live in, I realize that I have a unique strength. I am sitting on the bed, composing music that has nothing to do with the world of the last season, music full of a life that is its own. My surroundings force me, as it has always been during my life, to turn deeply into myself, to reach the roots of my existence. That something in me keeps its integrity, without being destroyed, fills me with amazement, as if it were a miracle.

My death belongs to me, it is only mine. You can protect yourself from your fears and the fear of death, helped by the Church, society and relatives, without any disinterested mercy. You who do not know the meaning of the expression "mental hygiene". You can keep the soul as pure as the body."

Picture: "Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan" (1885) by the Russian painter Ilya Repin.

Source: [ Ссылка ]

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