Karina Bonnier asks for the names of Swedish composers.  Swedish
music-lovers are touchingly devoted to Wilhelm Stenhammar, whom they like
to rate equal to his contemporaries Sibelius and Nielsen.  But Stenhammar,
an astute musician, considered Sibelius a far more original creator than he
was himself, and he was right.

Among contemporary composers, the following could be added to the names
already posted by others:  Bengt Hambraeus, known primarily for choral and
organ compositions; Hans Eklund, a middle-of-the-road tonal modernist; and
the more avant-garde Daniel Bortz.

Do Swedish Finns meet Ms.  Bonnier's criteria? In they do, we would
of course have to include Sibelius, as well as Sven Einar Englund, a
relatively conservative modern, whose music resembles that of Shostakovich.
I think his recently released cello concerto is a masterpiece.  And there
is Pehr Henrik Nordgren, who hails from Aland (with a little hole over the
first A), an island east of the Stockholm Archipelago which is inhabited
by Swedish speakers but which is part of Finland.  Much of Nordgren's
haunting, modernist music was written for the Ostrobothnian Chamber
Orchestra.

Jon Gallant  ([log in to unmask]