Programme notes:

Bo Nilsson’s early piano pieces, Schlagfiguren, Bewegungen and Quantitäten appear as warmly glowing constellations among the pointillistically crystalline piano works created by the serial avant-garde of the 50s. One of the reasons lies simply in how Bo Nilsson works, a manner which allowed him to be more subjective than what the times in reality called for. Schlagfiguren was composed in the spring of 1956. On the suggestion of his mentor Bengt Hambræus, Bo Nilsson sent the piece to David Tudor, the phenomenal pianist then part of John Cage’s circle in New York. Tudor gave the work its first performance during a European tour in November of the same year. By that time, Bo had already attracted the notice of the Continental avant-garde by the sensational performance of Frequenzen at that summer’s Darmstadt Festival. Schlagfiguren has four short movements. The whole work is permeated by the pointillistic writing typical of the period, though sometimes interrupted by what best can be called crypto-romantic sequences. The combination creates an unusually expressive flow of condensations and dilutions. This piece was also on the program for the historic Carl Fischer Concert Hall concert in New York, 22 April 1957, when Tudor introduced a number of new, seminal European works to the American public. In addition to Schlagfiguren, Tudor played works by Henri Pousseur and Bengt Hambræus, as well as giving the first performances of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Klavierstück XI and a new piece by Bo Nilsson titled Bewegungen. Gesticulatory elements tend to get the upper hand in Bewegungen, winning out over the pointillistic nature of his earlier work. The piece has three movements, with the first being the most dramatic. The last movement dissolves into an emptying field of single notes and molested tonalities possibly signifying everything. David Tudor also gave the first performance of Nilsson’s third piano piece titled Quantitäten. The event took place in Darmstadt, September 1958, and was preceded by a letter to the composer in which Tudor states that 'John Cage expresses great admiration for your music.' Cage would also spend a great deal of time discussing Nilsson’s compositions in his Darmstadt lectures the same year. The original version of this transparent work, filled as it is with technical playing finesses, has one of the most complex notations found in piano literature. Bo Nilsson later reworked the piece somewhat and it is that, somewhat simplified and a bit longer version we hear in this recording. Gunnar Valkare (from PSCD 106) Translation: Sven Borei