Parchment: Songs

For the first time, songs by the Swedish composer Moses Pergament (1893–1977)—of Finnish origin with Lithuanian-Jewish roots—have been recorded. He selected the poems he set to music from a wide variety of sources: the poems featured on this album are predominantly in Swedish, but are also written in a multitude of other languages. They also cover the entire spectrum of human emotion, from lively folk songs and nursery rhymes to lyrical expressions of love and loss, and even serious reflections on suffering and death. Many of the poets chosen by Pergament evoke nature in their expression of emotion, but his music never gives way to sentimentality: he treats every song as a microcosm, rendered with drama and dignity. There was a time when Pergament's vocal music was performed by singers of the caliber of Birgit Nilsson, Elisabeth Söderström, and Nicolai Gedda; it is high time it was rediscovered. Featured here are soprano Tuuli Lindberg and pianist Martin Malmgren.