With the present release, CPO are nearing home in their Pettersson symphony cycle. Only the relatively short Tenth and Eleventh (1972 and 1973 respectively), the choral-and-orchestral Twelfth (The Dead in the Marketplace, after Pablo Neruda), and what remains of No. 1 have still to appear. Some previous instalments have suffered by comparison with Segerstam’s rival accounts for BIS. This might be due to CPO using six different conductors, with only Alun Francis having had the benefit of tackling more than one work. Francis’s experience of the repertoire contributes much in making this new disc perhaps the best of CPO’s cycle so far. The orchestral playing is full of commitment, the account of the 40-minute Fifth (1960-2) sounding tremendously vivid; if some details come off marginally better in Atzmon’s pioneering performance, Francis has the edge where it counts, in his overall view of this magnificent work.
Yet the coupling (Atzmon has the Viola Concerto) – the last symphony the Swede managed to complete – is better still. No. 16 was written in 1979 for the American saxophonist Frederik Hemke, who recorded it (available again on the revived Swedish Society label). Here John-Edward Kelly, who has made some minor modifications to the solo part for reasons explained in the booklet (the ailing composer appears to have been uncertain of the instrument’s range), glides through the hair-raising virtuosity with breathtaking ease. This is the kind of advocacy Pettersson, who never heard the work, can only have dreamed of. An excellent disc.'