ME 255 Tor Mann conducts Sibelius: The Oceanides; The Bard; Pohjola’s Daughter; Symphony No 6, plus works by Stenhammar and Wiklund

Tor Mann conducts

We would probably be more familiar with the name of Tor Mann had he not confined his career mainly to his native Sweden. Born in Stockholm in 1894, he began his professional life as a cellist and played in the then Stockholm Concert Association Orchestra – now the Royal Stock- holm Philharmonic – between 1915 and 1920. He made his first appear- ance as a conductor with this orchestra in 1919, to good effect, and then studied in Germany for several years, securing a number of conduct- ing engagements. He became second conductor of the Gothenburg Sym- phony Orchestra in 1922 and their chief conductor from 1925 to 1939.

In 1939 Mann began teaching conducting and the study of scores at the Royal College of Music in Stock- holm. In the same year Swedish Radio put him in charge of its orchestras – or to be more precise, the Stockholm and Gothenburg symphony orchestras and other ensembles when they broadcast under the name of Radio Orchestras. The greater part of his recorded legacy stems from his radio work. While in concerts he gave a wide range of repertoire, the material saved in the radio archives is mainly of Swedish and other Nordic music, and thus he has become particularly associated with composers including Berwald, Nielsen and Sibelius.

Here we present examples of his work in this field. The Sibelius pieces are the work of an interpreter in personal contact with the composer and entirely at home in his idiom. The Oceanides, slower than most versions at ten and a half minutes, builds to an overwhelming climax. The Bard, rarely heard even today, and Pohjola’s Daughter are equally fine, and models of Sibelius style. . . [extract from ME.255 liner notes]