For a composer whose style can be acutely abrasive, Sven-David Sandstrom (b 1942) begins his single- movement concerto in uncharacteristically gentle manner. Indeed, the first few episodes almost suggest something of a mickey-take on the romantic concerto genre as a whole. The opening's warm romantic glow leads to a dynamic, rather Lisztian Allegro, succeeded by a fuller, lyrical episode based on the opening material; later on there is something approaching a Coplandesque hoedown (though its treatment is quite unCopland-like). It is unclear whether Sandstrom had a specific expressive purpose behind such seeming eclecticism (the booklet-notes are unhelpful, discussing the music primarily as an extension of the soloist's virtuosity), yet no doubt one was present. Through it Sandstrom welds his material into an impressive whole, albeit more fantasia than regular concerto.
Johan Hammerth's First Concerto (a Second was premiered in 1997) is a very different proposition, outwardly aping the manner of the romantic concerto in three large-scale movements. Where Sandstrom uses fully grown themes with particular identities, Hammerth builds his work organically out of the very opening bars. What Hammerth lacks is the melodic and thematic distinctiveness with which Sandstrom - and indeed many a romantic concerto-composer - invests his piece. While there are striking passages and sonorities, much drama and intensity, the overall effect is a little charmless.
Both concertos are played with great skill and commitment by Lundin, ably accompanied by Goran Nilson and the Gavle orchestra, which has recently made several discs of more romantic, if equally obscure, fare for Sterling. Sound quality is stunning, as one expects from Caprice.

Guy Rickards