The inspiration for Mov 1 Alfvén got when he was sailing in the Stockholm Archipelago. The imposant and majestic theme in the second part of Mov 5 is an old Swedish Psalm hymn called "I go to death where I go". Notice that Alfvén was just 26 years old when he wrote this Symphony. Brilliant performance!
Dear Gunnar, my grandfather was commodore of one of the yacht clubs in Riga during the 1930´s and often hosted Mr. Alfven up to the late 1930s at summer banquets in his yacht club. The last great sailing tour they did together was a trip in the summer of 1938. My dad was 10 at the time and was allowed to join on my grandfather´s yacht. The waypoints were Riga, Estonia and Gotland, whereafter Mr. Alfven sailed back to Sweden and my grandpa and dad sailed back to Riga after parting company. My grandfather received a little watch (Spieluhr) from him which played the opening bars of his summer rhapsody. I can still hum the tune to this day...wonderful memories!
This wonderful symphony was my introduction to Alfvén some 40 years ago. Sadly, he has been neglected by me and so many others. No more; a further investigation of his music has begun. Please join me.
55:12 simply judging by this passage I know this is the best recording. Beautifully balanced. Most other performances the brass just try to drown the woodwinds. Here you can hear the two families in perfect balance.
A no-holds barred, energetic, unapologetically Romantic work. Very much like early Dvorak. Music you can listen to over and over. Do I care if critics consider this piece outdated when written? Do I care if it snows in Antarctica?
majestic charm in the first movement, his thematic development is like shorthand for the big sweeping romantic gestures of his contemporaries. he can sort of fast forward to the relevant emotional content without cheapening it.
Distinctly Swedish romantic nationalism. Similar Swedish composers are Kurt Atterberg, Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, Wilhelm Stenhammar and August Söderman. Yes I would also put Dvorak, Smetana, Grieg, Borodin and Glinka in the same bracket.
Why great music, great art, great writings, great acts are not noticed remains something of a mystery. Explanations fail to capture the true essence surrounding success of works of all kinds. There is nothing wrong with this work, it simply falls among those that for whatever reason is not noticed. RU-vid visibility extended its visibility, but because there are so many others, this work remains obscure even under the new media offerings.
I wouldn’t call this symphony great music, however it certainly is fully professional and most certainly deserves to be heard more often instead of constant repeats of the “standard repertory”. In Europe orchestras are exploring more and more seldom heard works but that doesn’t seem to be the case so much in the U.S. and might be one of the causes of dwindling audiences.
@@peterbuckley265 What you have written is so true. The BBC takes a lot of the blame - promoting a coterie of chosen young composers for 'new' music while using its fine orchestras to roll out works from a very limited number of famous composers. Some works really do need new champions - Grace Williams's violin concerto is easily a match for Walton's but but seems to be never performed, certainly not a-in a braodcast concert
At first I wasn't entirely sure about this performance. Although I'm a huge fan of Svetlanov I felt he was driving the music too hard. However by the time we got to 55:12, surely one of the most glorious passages in all Alfven's music, he had won me over. Another big thanks to KuhlauDilfeng2
Very interesting Symphony , considering that he was only 26 when wrote it. Great technique and great control of the orchestration. The first movement is really beautiful. Absolutely to rediscover.
Thanks for uploading this. And thanks to those people contributing to the work with background information on the composer. Both of those are how a work gets to a wider public, not bemoaning the fact that because we haven't heard something it must be unknown.
Listening to Alfven is like being in Swedish Norrland with it's all contrasts of instrumental variations. Couple of times driving North landsvägarna towards Luleå music sounds paint fantastisk inspiration in your head .
Getting to like Hugo Alfven more, even though is one of the lesser known composers (Swedish). I'm hearing some Beethoven, Brahms and Bruckner influences.
I'm hearing Sibelius and Bruckner myself, but a lot of the Late Romantic composers share similar styles in general (Though I'm not sure if Beethoven counts as Late Romantic)
Thank you so much for uploading this masterpiece. Here in Los Angeles, Alfen is considered a one-work composer. Guess which one. It is so refreshing to hear his other works.
According to the Internet, Swedish Rhapsody no.1? and here in Hong Kong I don't think there is even a performance on Alfven that is conducted here... he is super unknown!
Especial y bella sinfonía con detalles musicales sui generis que no se puede etiquetar o comparar.en sus temas,desarrollo y orquestación es muy propia del compositor. Me gustó la interpretación en vivo.
Sen jag var små barn vi lysnade på Hugo Alfvens symphonier på farsans gamla LP hi-fi spelaren med varma ljud. Svenska rapsodi nr-1 är favorit. Kan höra det om och om igen .....
This seems to be a different Svetlanov performance to the one on the CD that I own (1988, Musica Sveciae) - same orchestra, but different timings. The 1988 one takes 65 minutes to this one's 58 and a half...
wish he would have taken Alfven's metronome/tempo markings in the introduction to the first movement - which are drastically different leave it to Svetlanov to abuse "artistic license" - an otherwise amazing conductor who is plagued by being overly fanciful
