Svenska Tangenter/Swedish Keyboards

If, in order to read the poems by the Swedish poet Gustaf Fröding (1860–1911) you would have to visit the town library of Karlstad (close to where the poet was born), or if the works of Strindberg were to be found only in the Royal Library in Stockholm, how would that have influenced our cultural identity? This is a question put by the inexhaustible musicologist Carl-Gunnar Åhlén. The fact that Sweden once had an unusually large number of piano manufacturers, and that not a single one is left today, bears witness of the importance of a cultural heritage. A country with such a strong piano tradition fostered numerous pianists, educated by numerous piano teachers and their schools …

Once again Carl-Gunnar Åhlén has saved a part of the Swedish cultural heritage that has been scattered and inaccessible in obscure archives and private collections. With the support of contemporary technology numerous recordings on cylinders, lacquer discs, gelatin discs, steel tapes and piano rolls have been restored and made enjoyable. It is important that this material, instead of existing only in unique copies is now multiplied and made generally accessible.

Among the pianists we can enjoy in more or less well sounding recordings we notice such legendary celebrities from times gone by as Wilhelm Stenhammar, Emil Sjögren, Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, Natanael Broman and Gunnar de Frumerie, alongside with those of more recent times, Sven Brandel, Stina Sundell, Wiatcheslaw Witkowski, Stig Ribbing, Hans Leygraf and Ann Mari Fröier.

The selection is thoroughly commended in 216-page book which, sometimes in the shape of “pianistic family trees” mirrors the Swedish piano traditions that have fostered so many well known musicians. A documentation of all known commercial recordings, radio recordings and private collections as well as biographies over pianists and pedagogues is also included. Åhléns well informed commentary is completed with a bonus CD with 12 radio broadcasts from 1993–94 where Hans Leygraf recounts his legendary teaching to Lennart Höglund.