Swedish Rhapsody No.1, Op. 19

The Medical College of Wisconsin Orchestra
Spring 2024 Concert
Swedish Rhapsody No.1, Op. 19
by Hugo Alfvén
Conducted by: Alexander Mandl, DMA
The music of Hugo Alfvén has always been close to the hearts of the Swedish people. More than any other composer he is regarded as representing the spirit of the country. This might also be due to the fact that for many years he lived in Dalecarlia, the province where genuine folk-music tradition is at its strongest. Alfvén in fact came from Stockholm, and from the age of fifteen studied the violin at the Conservatory there. It was thus on the violin that he supported himself during the 1890s whilst taking private lessons in composition with Johan Lindegren, the leading contrapuntist of the day, he earned his daily bread as a violinist at the Opera, and his time in the orchestra there gave him comprehensive insights into the nature and possibilities of different instruments. The colorful and virtuoso orchestration skills he developed have been compared with those of Richard Strauss.
At various stages of his career Hugo Alfvén composed three Swedish Rhapsodies, of which the first one, Midsommarvaka (Midsummer Vigil) has become his most well-known work internationally and inspired several arrangements, including one by Percy Faith called Swedish Rhapsody which was a world-wide success. Alfvén himself has told us that the idea for the work first occurred to him in the years of 1892 to 1895 when he spent the summers in the archipelago of Stockholm in the company of the people there. There is always something special about the festivities surrounding Midsummer Eve, and Alfvén often took part in them, usually as a spectator, but on some occasions as a violinist. Midsommarvaka is a potent brew full of burlesque humor, barn dancing, fist fights and loving couples, with festivities going on well into the small hours. By name it is a rhapsody but, as the composer has pointed out, it is a tight knit symphonic poem, the basis of which is a very detailed visual program. It might be worth noticing that this "paean to the Swedish character and the Swedish nature at Midsummer", as Alfvén himself called it, was in fact composed in Denmark, at Skagen to be exact, where in the summer of 1903 he had fallen in love with Maria Krøyer, the wife of the painter Peder Severin Krøyer, who was to become his wife.