Having for so long considered Swedish composer Hugo Alfven (1872-1960) in light of his popular “Midsummer Vigil” Swedish Rhapsody, I hardly knew that he lived well into the 20th Century, and that his A Minor Symphony (1942-1953; rev. 1958) dominated much of his later life, along with his ballet The Prodigal Son. The moody, turbulent music is scored along the lines of Bruckner and Mahler, its opening movement a tempestuous Lento–Allegro non troppo that runs almost 20 minutes. Like Bruckner’s symphonies, Alfven’s appears to proceed through emotional periods, now energetic, now bucolic and yearning, some of the motifs reminiscent of Liszt‘s Faust-Symphonie. Then like Brahms, the extended coda develops the music yet again, embracing both introduction and proceeding materials in full circle.
A bucolic serenity suffuses the Andante movement, somewhat Wagnerian in sonic patina, a Swedish version of Forest Murmurs aided by dreamy evocations from Parsifal. A gaudy chord in the bass opens the next movement, an eerie Danse Macabre with xylophone and pizzicato strings that usher in a torrent of strings, tympani, and brass slides. The sardonic atmosphere has Mahler and Weill about it, interrupted by a recalcitrant waltz. An imperious motif opens the extensive finale, another Brucknerian anaconda of some length, alternately sunny and turbulent, with a two-note evocation of Wagner’s “Rheingold, Rheingold!” salute sans sopranos. If someone played Name That Tune in the weaving course of this river, I might venture Ives on a romantic sojourn, even unpolished Dvorak.
The Andante religioso (1913) derives from Alfven’s Revelation Cantata, here scored for harp, celesta, and strings. A lovely intermezzo, solemn and delicate, a template for a magical scene for Hollywood, it evaporates before we can get our critical teeth around it, lest it crack. Sweet puffery.
— Gary Lemco
