HUGO ALFVEN (1872-1960)

 

Symphony No. 5

Andante religioso

 

Symphony No. 5 in A minor, Op. 54

Lento – Allegro non troppo

Andante

Lento – Allegro – Presto molto agitato

Finale: Allegro con brio

Andante religioso

 

Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra / Niklas Willen

 

A gifted musician, writer and watercolourist, Hugo Alfvén is regarded in his native Sweden as the most significant composer after Berwald.

 

The Fifth Symphony occupied Alfvén throughout the 1940s and 1950s, and draws on themes from his ambitious 1923 ballet The Mountain King. The first movement has sometimes been performed on its own, but the symphony is relatively rarely heard as a whole. The Andante religioso is Alfvén’s arrangement for harp, celesta and strings of an intermezzo from his Revelation Cantata, Op. 31.

 

This disc completes the Naxos cycle of the complete Alfvén Symphonies.

 

“The Naxos recording is better, however, being a modern digital offering, recorded in a sympathetic acoustic, allowing all parts to be heard clearly. The orchestra is certainly well up to the task…We don’t know how lucky we are.” MusicWeb on Symphony No. 4 (8557284)

 

Naxos 8557612