Hugo Emil Alfvén (May 1, 1872 – May 8, 1960) was a Swedish composer, conductor, violinist, and painter.
He was born in Stockholm and studied at the Conservatory there from 1887 to 1891, also taking private lessons from Johan Lindegren . He also toured Europe as a conductor throughout his life. He played the violin in the Hovkapellet (the Swedish court orchestra), and from 1910 was director musices at the University of Uppsala, a post he held until 1939. There he also directed the male voice choir Orphei Drängar until 1947. With Wilhelm Stenhammar, he became known as one of Sweden's principal composers.
Alfvén's music is in a fairly traditional late-Romantic idiom, colourfully orchestrated and often programmatic, attempting to evoke the Swedish landscape. Among his works are a large number of pieces for male voice choir, five symphonies and three orchestral "Swedish Rhapsodies", of which the first, Midsommarvaka (Midsummer Vigil, 1903, often simply known as "Swedish Rhapsody"), ranks as his best known piece.
His five symphonies, the first four of them now several-times recorded (with another cycle in progress), give a picture of the composer's musical progress. The first, his opus 7 from 1897, is an early F minor work, tuneful in a standard four movements. The second (1898-9), his opus 11 (and in a way his graduation piece, as interestingly recounted [1]) in D major concludes with a substantial, even powerful chorale-prelude and fugue in D minor. The third symphony (1905) opus 23 in E major, also in four movements, more mature in technique though light in manner was inspired by a trip to Italy.
The fourth symphony in C minor of 1918-9 - opus 39, From the Outermost Skerries (there is also a tone-poem, A Legend of the Skerries) — is a symphony in one forty-five minute movement using wordless voices, inspired by Carl Nielsen's Sinfonia Espansiva. The 5th in A minor, begun 1942 is one of the composer's last works, and has only been recorded once in full (recordings and performances of the 5th while rare enough, are usually of its quarter-hour first movement).
Alfvén was married 1912-1936 (divorce) to the Danish painter Marie Triepcke (1867-1940), who had previously been married to the painter Peder Severin Krřyer (1851-1909).
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Last updated: 08-04-2005 18:46:16
