Niklas Sivelov - Peterson-Berger: Flowers From Froso Island (1999)

Wilhelm Peterson-Berger is relatively unknown outside Sweden, but his three books of "romanser" (Lieder) for piano, "Frösöblomster", sit at the center of the Swedish lyric piano tradition. Published in three separate books between 1896 and 1914, the melodies are inspired by the wild landscape of Jämtland, that mountainous part of central Sweden near the Norwegian border west of Östersund, and the pine-clad island of Frösö in the middle of Lake Storsjön. Although Peterson-Berger spent much of his life in Stockholm, where he was a conductor, theatre director, and music critic for the influential daily, "Dagens Nyheter", he visited Jämtland at the age of 22 and kept coming back for the rest of his life, finding endless inspiration in the pristine Swedish countryside. Eventually he built a house, Summer Refuge, on Frösö Island (1930) and lived there for the remaining twelve years of his life.
His "romanser" are written in the best lyric tradition of Grieg and Schumann, with brushstrokes of Scandinavian folksong. Rivalled only by his opera "Arnljot" in popularity, "Frösöblomster" ("Flowers of Frösö Island") was written, as the notes to this recording state, "to achieve unaffected simplicity and succeed in creating 'music for the masses'. Many of these pieces are technically within the grasp of amateurs and sound good when performed by them."
Behind every melody is a landscape: the solemn, ancient strains of "Jämtland" and "Vid Frösö kyrka" (At Frösö Church); the poignant, subdued, faintly jazzy impressionism of "Landskap i aftonsol" (Landscape in the Evening Sun), an "atmospheric nocturne" which, Peterson-Berger wrote, describes "the great deep-blue spines of the Oviksfjäll Mountains bulging far beyond the islets, bays and sounds of the Storsjön"; the stormy "Vågar mot stranden" (Waves against the shore), which portrays a sudden storm whipping up the waters of a darkening lake; the sorrowful approach of autumn in the chords of "Minnen" (Memories). There are some light-hearted humoresques alongside these which I don't enjoy quite so much as the more "serious" pieces, but it's easy to share Peterson-Berger's enthusiasm for the wild beauty of Frösö Island.
I'm sure some people will be reluctant to buy a disc with the word "flowers" in the title (I was), but I recommend this disc unreservedly. Sparkling performance by Niklas Sivelöv. Naxos' best.