The Rilke Ensemble and its conductor Gunnar Eriksson portray the versatile composer Arne Mellnäs. Participation also by mezzosoprano Maria Edvardson and cellist Christian Berg.

Gunnar Eriksson writes about his friend Arne Mellnäs:  

“From the very beginning, Arne Mellnäs’ choral music was a reflection of the surrounding musical world: he quickly adopted new ideas and fashioned them in his own way…This CD was meant to be a gift to Arne on his 70^th birthday, a day that he unfortunately did not live to see. His passing is a great loss, to me personally, and to the world of choral singing. But it is a consolation that his music will be sung and played by new generations. It will live a life of its own in a future that noone can foresee. Not a single note was in vain…I’m very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to live with his pure, honest music, which to me often has been exemplary in its clarity and unsentimental warmth.”

   French noëls and other Christmas songs.
  

   There are two words in the Swedish language which have a special resonance to all Swedes. The corresponding words exist in other languages, but no translation can capt the strongly emotional meaning that we Swedes attribute to the words "spring" and "summer". It has a lot to do with our love for nature.
   In a country marked by long, dark winters, the words "spring" and "summer" almost take on the character of an incantation. Thus, as an example, a very popular song starts with magical repetition: "Summer, summer, summer!". Our consciousness of the transitory nature of verdant life gives the words their depth - the painfultruth in August Strindberg's lines:
   "Spring is waiting for us, the short life passes". Gunnar Eriksson and the Rilke Ensemble have taken the motto for this CD about the bright season in Sweden: "The short life ", from that very line, which is also included in a choral song in Ingvar Lidholm's opera "Ett drömspel".
   Swedish choristers - there are hundreds of thousands of them - have a several hundred years old and still growing national treasure of songs on this theme to glean from. It is much loved by singers and listeners alike. The, at the same time homogenous and richly contrasting selection on this CD, may to a great extent be seen as a sounding meditation over Swedish nature from early spring to late summer. However, certain charming sidesteps from this strict "line" have been allowed. Here are included such gems from the first half of the 20th century as Stenhammar's, Alfvén's, Lindberg's, Wikander's, Håkanson's and Åhlen's songs. They may perhaps be called National Romantic but there is no element of national pompousness, only richly sounding lyrics, inspired by nature - very Swedish.
   This is true even of Stenhammar, despite the fact that his song was composed to a Danish poem depicting a moonlit night in Turkey!
   Lidholm, Bäck and Johanson represent a later generation. They became known as radical innovators in post-war Sweden. But, as shown here by their songs, they have been unable to, or not wanted to deny their love for the lyrical-choral tradition in which they grew up.
   Among Johanson's songs, two especially deserve attention : the choral version of the short songs called "songes" (dreams) to which C.J.L. Almqvist wrote both the words and the melodies, in the middle of the 19th century. On this CD, there are also Gunnar Eriksson's arrangements of newer songs, originally intended for solo performance.
   Håkanson has used older Swedish poetry in his madrigal-like "Vernal song" set to words by the 17th century poet Wivallius. The very oldest Swedish traditional text, however, is found in Gunnar Eriksson's big quodlibet "Den blida vår är inne" ("Mild spring is here"). Its first part, a spring song in which every other line is in Latin, is taken from a collection of songs from the 16th century. The melody to another spring song entirely i Latin, from the "Piae cantiones" printed in 1582, has been added to it: "Tempus adest floridum".
   Gunnar Eriksson has now joined the linguistically mixed song and a spring psalm, by J.O. Wallin from the beginning of the 19th century, which has been extended with two freshly composed stanzas by Anders Frostensson in the book of psalms from 1986. A popular melody which awakens memories in all Swedes linked to the delightful summer season is used for this psalm. According to custom it is sung to the words "Den blomstertid nu kommer" ("The time of blossoming now comes") at the end of the school year - the beginning of the long, badly pined for summer break, which in effect is "the short life".

Folke Bolin
English translation: Isabel Thomson

Per Nørgård is a composer dear to the ensemble and you can almost count on that one or several of his compositions is a regular feature on the ensemble´s concerts! He has composed pieces of music directly for the ensemble on several occasions. We hope that this CD is able to transfer at least to some extent the fascination and joy we feel when we work with and perform the complex music of  Nørgård.

We started out by referring to Mysterium as our Christmas-CD but we have found out that it is most suitable for other occasions as well due to its meditative character. The CD contains a variety of composers such as Charles Ives, Peter Maxwell-Davies, Hugo Diestler and of course, Per Nørgård.  

Music for a while has been our most appreciated CD so far which probably can be attributed to the fact that many of the songs on this CD are songs which have been on the ensemble´s repertoire for a long period of time. This music has travelled with us on so many concerts that I think that every member has a personal relation to it and that this perhaps is reflected in our performance of it.