Mother has no money, the pan is empty.... Poverty blooms among the thorns... My longing is a strange bird pecking at the window every night... Listening to the Barefoot Songs - beautifully sung by Peter Mattei - you would not think that this is the key work of a distinguished composer. The songs are as simple as old-fashioned Sunday school songs, though they deal with unpleasant issues such as
… poverty, cold, loneliness and death. Yet this collection was very important to Allan Pettersson, if only because he had written the autobiographical lyrics himself. The songs left their mark in the rest of his mostly very complex music, such as in the impressive Second Violin Concerto (put on CD by Ida Haendel and Isabelle van Keulen, among others). As a child, Pettersson grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Stockholm. His father was a blacksmith with a temper. His mother was pious and musical. The marriage did not last. No wonder Pettersson was marked by poverty and chronic health problems. Interviews reveal a difficult person with a querulous nature. See for example the beginning of the interview "Who the hell is Allan Pettersson?" on YouTube. Nevertheless, this misanthropic figure identified with the socially disadvantaged. He considered his music to be 'the voice of a calling, threatening to drown in the noise of time.' (HJ)more
