Scandinavian Festival provides a smorgasbord of romantic pieces by Norwegian, Finnish, and Swedish composers replete with nationalist sentiment, ingenuous emotion, and broadly brushed colors. Christian Sinding's perennial favorite, The Rustle of Spring, opens the program with effervescent energy. Edvard Grieg is the best represented composer here, and his orchestral miniatures give the widest range of moods, from the joyous outbursts of the Norwegian Dances to the turns of melancholy and yearning in his Lyric Suite. The Karelia Overture by Jean Sibelius is sweeping in its scenic tone painting, and the patriotic fervor that energizes it is convincing, even when the music veers ever so slightly toward bombast. Hugo Alfvén's Swedish Rhapsody is perhaps the most inventive work presented, successfully blending jaunty melodies and even a little slapstick humor with music of intensely dark feeling, a stark contrast often found in Scandinavian music. The festive Norwegian Artists' Carnival by Johan Svendsen symbolizes its Roman setting with an Italian folk tune, though the artists are portrayed by their own distinctive Norwegian melodies. The Allegro giocoso from Grieg's Symphonic Dances closes out the disc with a boisterous romp.
Richard Edlinger's performances with the CSSR State Philharmonic Orchestra are passionate and invigorating, and the sound of this 1988 recording is quite good.