Symphony No. 7

Not until he was 42 years old did Allan Pettersson complete the first symphony he wrote all the way to the end. He composed it on commission by Swedish Radio during a study period with René Leibowitz in 1951/43 in Paris. Pettersson rejected Leibowitz's advocacy of twelve-tone technique and serialism for his own work and worked instead in dedicated, unwavering opposition to the fashion trends of the contemporary avant-garde: "The development does not run through the opportunistic festivals declared sacred by the Society of Modern Music but rather through the soul of the people. The reaction of the average, anonymous human against snobbishness and cranks with limited specialized expertise is healthy and justified. The radicalism of the present day is not genuine; it is simply the product of an impoverished, sterile situation." Consequently, Petterson's symphonies present themselves unconcernedly powerful, emotionally overflowing and call for enormous orchestral forces. Beside the incessantly insistent gesture of lamentation, the most conspicuous characteristic of the work is the slowness of the countlessly repeated motion sequences, which convey the impression of a veritably vegetative overgrowth.