It is fair to say that, with the possible exception of the first of his three ‘Swedish Rhapsodies’ (Midsommarvaka), the music of the Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén (1872–1960) is not well known outside his homeland. This is most regrettable, as his vividly pictorial orchestral music combines an appealing late-Romantic richness with a strong sense of Swedish identity that I am sure many listeners would enjoy.

The conductor on this SACD, recorded live in the Gothenburg Concert Hall on 11 October 2024, is Neeme Järvi. Throughout his long and illustrious career, Järvi has been a tireless champion of Alfvén’s oeuvre, and many will recall that in the late 1980s he recorded memorable accounts of the composer’s five symphonies and other orchestral works. The curtain-raiser for this concert is ‘Festspel’ Op. 25, whose thrilling opening fanfares lead to an ebullient polonaise reminiscent of that in Tchaikovsky’s opera ‘Eugene Onegin’. The panache with which Järvi and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra perform it certainly belies the maestro’s 87 years.

We move to Finland for the next work, Rautavaara’s atmospheric ‘Cantus arcticus’ (Concerto for Birds and Orchestra), written in 1972 and here making its first appearance on SACD. ‘Cantus arcticus’ is widely regarded as Rautavaara’s most famous and frequently performed work, a status that reflects its originality and accessibility rather than any great structural complexity. Its appeal stems largely from its evocative combination of live orchestra with recorded birdsong, which brings the natural world vividly into the concert hall. In this performance, the sounds of cranes, shore larks, whooper swans, and other birds – realised by Daniel Arnesson and Jan Svanberg – are effectively integrated into the orchestral texture.

The final work on the disc is Alfvén’s ‘Gustav II Adolf’ Suite for Orchestra, Op. 49. It was written to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the death of Gustav II Adolf in connection with a play at the Royal Swedish Opera. While the play itself is long forgotten, Alfvén’s colourful and celebratory music is well worth hearing. The suite consists of eight contrasting movements and, although the orchestral writing is cinematic – at times approaching the brilliance of Richard Strauss – it is generally more conservative harmonically. The GSO and their veteran conductor Emeritus clearly revel in both the lyrical and exuberant sections of this impressive score, whether in the opening ‘Vision’ with its glowing brass, the lively ‘Bourré for three bassoons, the moving ‘Elegi’, or the thrilling depiction of the Battle of Breitenfeld (1631) that concludes the work in heroic style.

The recording (24-bit / 48 kHz), made by producer Lars Nilsson and sound engineer Michael Dahlvid of Nilento Studio, is impressively vivid, though the close miking does slightly limit the sense of concert-hall spaciousness. An unusual feature in the Alfvén Suite is the long pauses between tracks (up to 12 seconds), presumably to allow the audience to settle before the music continues. Any applause or audience noise has been expertly excised throughout.

This is a most enjoyable disc of largely neglected Scandinavian music that, while not without its limitations, offers much to admire and will be of particular interest to those keen to explore beyond the standard orchestral repertoire.

Copyright © 2026 Graham Williams and HRAudio.net

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