Alfven defines musical Sweden

Synopsis

What do YOU think of when you think of Sweden? In the 1960s, sexy blond movie stars might have come to mind, or, for the art house crowd, the dark, existentialist films of Ingmar Berman. Disco fanciers might immediately think of the pop group ABBA, but for most of the 20th century—symphonically speaking—one piece of music defined all things Swedish.

And it was on today's date in 1904, that this "Midsummer Vigil," the Op. 19, by the Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén was first performed, in Stockholm, with the composer conducting.

It was the first of three orchestral rhapsodies, all based on actual Swedish folk tunes. It rapidly became Alfvén's most famous work, and soon served as a kind of musical shorthand for all things Scandinavian. In Sweden itself, Alfvén's score was adapted as a tremendously popular ballet.

Alfvén lived from 1872-1960, and had a long and productive career as a composer and conductor. He wrote five symphonies and dozens of choral works and folksong arrangements. He held several major music posts in Sweden, and even achieved success as an author and watercolorist, writing and painting vivid pictures of the landscapes he loved best—the islands and inlets of the Swedish coastline. "In the depths of my soul I am an archipelago dweller," he once confided to a friend. Unfortunately, most of Alfvén's music remains far too little known outside Sweden—with the one exception of his big hit, the "Midsummer Vigil."

Music Played in Today's Program

Hugo Alfven (1872 - 1960) Swedish Rhapsody No. 1, Op. 19 (A Midsummer Vigil) Iceland Symphony; Petri Sakari, cond. Chandos 9313

On This Day

Births

• 1697 - French violinist and composer Jean Marie Leclair, in Lyons;

• 1888 - Austrian-born American film composer Max Steiner, in Vienna;

• 1894 - Russian-born American film composer, Dimitri Tiomkin, in St. Petersburg;

• 1916 - American composer Milton Babbitt, in Philadelphia;

Deaths

• 1760 - German composer Johann Christoph Graupner, age 77, in Darmstadt;

Premieres

• 1876 - Wagner: "Festival March" (commissioned for the American Centennial), at the opening of the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, conducted by Theodore Thomas;

• 1894 - R. Strauss: opera "Guntram," in Weimar at the Hoftheater, with the composer conducting;

• 1904 - Alfvén: "Midsommarvaka" (Midsummer Vigil), in Stockholm;

• 1907 - Dukas: opera "Ariane et Barbe-Blue" (Ariane and Bluebeard),in Paris;

• 1954 - Rautavaara: "A Requiem in Our Time," in Cincinnati, with Cincinnati Brass Choir, Ernest N, Glover, conducting; This work had won First Prize in the Thor Johnson Composition Contest that year;

• 1957 - Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 2, in Moscow, by the USSR State Symphony, Nikolai Anosov conducting, with the composer's son, Maxim, as the soloist;

• 1964 - Roy Harris: "Epilogue to ‘Profiles in Courage'" for orchestra, in Los Angeles;

• 1985 - Peter Maxwell Davies: "An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise" for orchestra with bagpipe solo, ay Boston's Symphony Hall, by the Boston Pops conducted by John Williams;

• 1985 - Michael Torke: "Ecstatic Orange," at the Cooper Union in New York, by the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Lukas Foss conducting;

• 1997 - Philip Glass: opera "The Marriage Between Zones Three, Four and Five" (based on the sci-fi novel by Doris Lessing), at the State Theater in Heidelberg (Germany);

Others

• 1824 - American premiere of Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro" (sung in English ) at the Park Theater in New York.