Alfven: Symphony No. 4, Op. 39 / Festival Overture, Op. 52

Description

Hugo Alfven (1872-1960)Symphony No. 4, 'From the Outermost Skerries' Festival OvertureAlthough the music of Hugo Alfven has never been widely heard internationally, in his native Sweden he ranks, alongside Wilhelm Stenhammar, as the most significant composer after Berwald. Born in Stockholm on 1st May 1872, he studied at the conservatory there, followed by two years spent as a violinist in the opera orchestra, after which he decided to devote himself to composition. Unlike his predecessors, he was ambitious: two substantial symphonies [Naxos 8.553962 and 8.555072] appeared in 1897 and 1898 respectively, the Stockholm premi?¿re of the latter in 1900 confirming his national reputation. Over the following quarter century, a number of major works appeared: they include the Third [Naxos 8.553729] and Fourth Symphonies, the oratorio The Lord's Prayer, the Revelation Cantata, the balletpantomime The Mountain King, and three Swedish Rhapsodies, of which the first, Midsummer Vigil [Naxos 8.553115] has remained his most popular piece. After 1923 his output focused increasingly on choral music, reflecting his commitments as conductor of the Siljan Choir and Orpheus Singers, with whom he toured frequently. His Fifth Symphony occupied him throughout the 1940s and 1950s, while the ballet The Prodigal Son found the 85-year-old composer making inventive use of traditional and folk-music. Alfven died, quite the elder statesman of Swedish music, in Falun on 8th May 1960. A gifted watercolourist and vividly illustrative author, Alfven was well equipped by ability as well as temperament to depict the unique island landscape of the Stockholm archipelago, in the vicinity of which he spent much of his formative years. The 1904 tone poem A Legend of the Skerries [Naxos 8.553729] evokes a soundworld far removed from the drama of his first two symphonies, and it was hardly surprising when, four years later, he decided to give his experiences of the archipelago symphonic expression. Work on the Fourth Symphony progressed fitfully and it was not until 1918, following several sailing expeditions and the taking of a sabbatical from his post as Director of Music at Uppsala University, that he was able to proceed apace. The work was completed by the spring of 1919 and received its premi?¿re at a gala concert at the Stockholm Musical Academy on 4th November that year, followed by a public airing on 23rd January 1920. Despite reservations expressed by several prominent critics, general acclaim was forthcoming both then and at subsequent performances in Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna and Berlin. One of the main reservations concerned the use of two voices, soprano and tenor, as part of the orchestral apparatus, though Alfven was doubtless aware of a precedent in Nielsen's Third Symphony of 1911 [Naxos 8.550825] in this respect. The other criticism concerned the erotic nature of its programme, one which Alfven refuted to the extent of dedicating the work to his then teenage daughter Mar