Composer: Hugo Alfvén
Orchestra: Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Conductor: Łukasz Borowicz
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: CPO
Catalogue: 5553542
Release: 2022
Size: 744 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 11
01. I. Moderato
02. II. Andante
03. III. Allegro
04. IV. Preludio. Adagio
05. V. Fuga. Allegro energico
Swedish Rhapsody No. 3, Op. 47 ‘Dalarapsodi’
06. I. Andante
07. II. Allegro violento
08. II. Allegro violento (Alternative Ending Version)
Here loving service is done to a composer who is perhaps Sweden’s most important symphonist and certainly its most popular one”. This is what FonoForum wrote of Vol. 2 of the CPO edition of symphonic works by Hugo Alfvén, who numbers among the most productive and most versatile Swedish cultural personalities.
Alfvén’s Symphony No. 2 brought him a success that he termed his definitive artistic breakthrough. A second performance was held during the same year, and it was not long before it was also being presented in foreign countries. This work became his most popular symphony and the first of his compositions to appear in print (1900). At the time national Romantic tones had long dominated music by Swedish composers, while Alfvén adopted a taste that was more continental – a fact that reviewers registered with astonishment. His Swedish Rhapsody No. 3, a composition featuring impressive work with motifs from Swedish folk music, rounds off this album.