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All this
music is new to me: but this disc had such an immediate effect on
me that I just had to review it immediately - if you're into turn-of-the-century
music from Scandinavia, do give it a try!
The Festpel
- Festival Overture - begins with a series of brassy fanfares
that, although it does not quite reach Star Wars, is immediately
arresting. A festively loud theme swaggers in with great pomp and
royal joy, with cymbals, drums and ringing triangle in accompaniment.
After a lyrical central trio, still brimming with sunny warmth,
this "march" section returns to close the overture in triumph. Composed
in one day for the opening of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm,
1908, the Festspel has enjoyed a long history of use during
Swedish state occasions. After listening to its open-hearted celebration,
one hardly wonders why! The Royal Scottish National bring in their
thunder and blazes to bear on the work - and they obviously enjoyed
it!
Hugo Emil Alfvén (left), contemporary to Sibelius, is one of the
Swedes' most favourite composers. A violinist by training and also
a fine painter, he studied conducting in Dresden and later became
Director of Music at the Uppsala University from 1910-1923. With
the Orphei Dränger (Servants of Orpheus) choir he toured throughout
Europe and the USA, developing their and his international fame.
To date, Alfvén's place in the Swedish choral tradition remains
very strong, both in terms of compositions and arrangements. With
five symphonies and various tone poems to his credits, Alfvén is
considered as something of a Father of Swedish Orchestral Music,
which was a genre whose potential he opened up for his fellow Swedes.
Alfvén's
orchestral palette has been compared to that of Richard Strauss.
Listening to the music for the ballet-pantomime Bergakungen
(The Mountain King, 1917-22), one certainly agrees. The atmosphere
of the four pieces here also bring to mind Dukas' The Sorcerer's
Apprentice. Above an insistent timpani footstep, the ominous
first movement Besvärjelse (Invocation) conjures a
picture of dark magic, flitting shadows and fearful journeys through
some goblin forest. The ballet is based on Den Bergtagna,
about a shepherdess abducted by the mountain king but later rescued
by her beloved. Unforunately they die in a snowstorm.
Alfvén was
also inspired by the paintings of John Bauer, whose children's story
book Bland tomtar och troll (Among goblins and trolls)
remains highly influential in the tradition of illustrations for
children's literature on the themes of sylvan and troll culture.
The second movement in the suite is the slow and serene Trollflickans
dans (Dance of the Troll Maiden). The Royal Scottish National
produce a sweet and evocative reading, from the dreamy introduction
to the perfumed dance on violins. A short dramatic outburst towards
the end makes for some contrast. The sweet tonal writing, the scoring
which includes the "tinkling" instruments (harp, xylo) immediately
reveals itself as one of the sources to which many composers for
cartoon/animation epics must have refered.
The evocatively
titled Sommarregn (Summer rain) has a ring of Holst's
The Planets in its colour. The 2-minute piece shimmers
with strings and triangle; while the woodwind gurgle with the rain,
a saxophone (I think it's a sax) sings a forlorn theme over the
glissandi of low harp strings. Wow, I would love to see the ballet.
The fiddle
dance (as in those of the "Wild West"!) of Vallflickans dans
(Dance of the Shepherd Girl) has evidently endeared it among
the Swedish. I can hardly contain myself as I imagine the Royal
*Scottish* fiddlers putting their heart and soul into this music!
Writer of the CD notes, Sven Kruckenberg, calls it "an indispensible
encore for Swedish orchestras on concert tours abroad." Anyway,
the music has the capacity for wide appeal, with a cosmopolitan
tone always showing the composer's rich resources.
One of Alfvén's
most famous works is the trio of Swedish Rhapsodies. Of these,
the second "Uppsala Rhapsody" is the least known. Composed
in 1907 for the Uppsala University on the 200th anniversary of the
birth of Linnćus, it is based on student songs and popular melodies
of the day á lŕ Brahms's Academic Festival Overture.
The work is comparatively simple and direct; accessible, but personally
I find of limited interest. The composer does indulge in a little
humour though, by depicting the swallowing of booze with clarinet
gurglings!
Alfvén's
35-minute Symphony No.1 in F minor is one of his earliest
works (the earliest in this collection), but is quite a unique creation.
Written in 1897, it opens with a long Grave section that
sounds quite modern (in the Sibelian, tonal sense but Alfvén's style
is very different from the Finn). An ominous crescendo-ing drum
roll begins the movement, (half expecting Grieg's Piano Concerto
to ring out) and then a solo cello utters an impassioned, forlorn
theme punctuated by the orchestra. There is the sense of progression
accompanied by an absence of a real/dominant melody - hallmarks
of great composition. The bridge into the vehement Allegro con
brio is handled with genius, and the progression of moods and
themes, sometimes reminding me of Brahms, is impressively coherent
in the hands of Swedish conductor Niklas Willén.
After the
confident utterance of the previous movement, the "pretty winter"
imagery of the Andante is quite sentimental. All eight minutes
of this movement keep to the general atmosphere of languid, somewhat
soapy, sweetness mixed in with "Romantic" feeling. The orchestral
writing is very clear however, and the performance by the Royal
Scottish actually kept my attention, never becoming dreary. The
Allegro molto scherzando begins with a lively and confident
section framing the traditional slower central trio, ending amusingly
with a little wink.
The finale
is marked "Allegro ma non troppo", and sports this little march
led by piccolo and fellow woodwind in the middle. It starts playfully
then gathers strength. This development is quite impressive, as
the theme is passed to strings then tutti winds, and festively to
the trumpets then returned to the woodwind and then merging into
the "main" symphonic picture proper. In the final minute of the
work, the excitement builds towards a victorious coda of heroic
confidence, with which the movement also began.
Alfvén's
orchestration, come to think of it, has this confident utterance
and avoids being overblown - I really like the way he allows the
brass and drums to showcase themselves but keeps everything carefully
defined and in place. His writing for woodwind is concise and effective,
with the regular moment of eyebrow-raising inspiration. There are
hints of various composers (Brahms, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, American
film and something modern....), but the music is original and distinguished.
I suspect
that it is very possible for an uninspired orchestra to make this
work sound boring, and am glad to report that the Royal Scottish
National plays it with much musical conviction. I shall like to
hear this played by a Swedish team, but for now, this Naxos album
is a revelatory encounter for me, and I'm sure it will be for anyone
interested in the music of Scandinavia, circa the time of Sibelius.
Recorded in Henry Wood Hall, the sound is very truthful, capturing
many details among the winds, giving due prominence to the combined
brass sections and laying the heavy drums in its rightful place
in the whole picture. I eagerly await Volume 2.
.
The INKPOT
SIBELIUS NUTCASE thinks
"Hugo Alfvén" is a really darn cool name. He reminisces nostalgically
at the prehistoric creatory influences on his own, not-so-illustrious
yet completely legume-justified title.
458: 20.4.1999.
up.3.6.1999 ©Inkpot Sibelius Nutcase
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