Swedish Orchestral Favourites, Vol. 1

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Cat No: 8553115

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099411523

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: Swedish Orchestral Favourites, Vol. 1

Description
Swedish Orchestral Favourites August Söderman (1832-1876)Swedish Festival Music Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927)Interlude from the Cantata The Song ... Lars-Erik Larsson (1908-1986)Pastoral Suite Epilogue from A Winter's Tale Wilhelm Peterson-Berger (1867-1942)Four Pieces from Frösöblomster .. Hugo Alfvén (1872-1960)Polka from Roslagen Dag Wirén (1905-1983)Marcia from Serenade for Strings Elegy from Gustavus Adolphus II Suite Midsummer VigilThe present collection of Swedish Orchestral Favourites includes works by six composers. The first of these, August Söderman, is regarded as the leading Swedish romantic composer. He worked extensively as a theatre conductor and later as chorus- master of the Stockholm Opera House, dying in 1876 at the age of 44. His principal compositions consist of incidental music. Of special interest are Bröllopet på Ulvåsa (Wedding at Ulvåsa), Marsk Stigs döttrar (Lord Stig's Daughters) and Peer Gynt, the last written five years before Grieg's music for Ibsen's drama. In 1858 he wrote an overture for the play Några timmar till på Kronobergs slott (A Few Hours More at Kronoborg Castle), with a text by a member of the Swedish royal family, and this, two years later, was also used at a performance of Schiller's The Maid of Orleans. For some years now this piece has been known as Svenkst festspel (Swedish Festival Music). It must be regarded as Söderman's finest orchestral work and bears witness to his skill in orchestration and his stylized approach to Swedish folk-music. Wilhelm Stenhammar, Wilhelm Peterson-Berger and Hugo Alfvén were all born within a short time of each other in the final years of Söderman's life and made their names in the last decade of the nineteenth century, showing various degrees of national influence, although differing markedly in their musical language. The least Swedish of the three is Wilhelm Stenhammar, a composer who seldom makes direct use of folk-music, although there is an undoubted nordic element in his music, apparent in the interlude from the cantata Sången (The Song). This has a text by Stenhammar's slightly younger colleague, the composer Ture Rangström, and was written in 1921 for the 150th anniversary of the Royal Swedish Music Academy. It was Stenhammar's last major work and is seldom performed in it entirety, although the central Interlude that joins the two disparate parts of the cantata is often heard. Wilhelm Peterson-Berger wrote many symphonies and operas but is remembered today in Sweden mainly as a feared music critic and as a composer of some songs and of 21 piano pieces which form part of the three books of Frösöblomster (Flowers from Frösön). The model was apparently the Lyric Pieces of Grieg. These pieces have become supremely popular with musicians and audiences alike, melodies, humoresques and idylls expressly regarded by the composer as music for the
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