A Composer Without Facial Hair

 

I have never seen a picture of Hugo Alfvén without a moustache.

Yet, there he floats over the Stockholm archipelago without one.

In any case, the Swedish composer must be best known for his contributions to choral music. On record, though, it is his symphonies and orchestral music which has fared better. Certainly, everything I have read about the composer seems to suggest a sense of pride rescuing the Swedish folk song from the obscurities of time.

On this choral album, featuring the Gustaf Sjökvist Chamber Choir directed by the titular Gustaf Sjökvist, 24 of Alfvén's mixed choir pieces are performed. Apparently, there are some 80 choral works out there from Alfvén, many of which were written with male choir in mind. The composer often came back and rejiggered his music for mixed choir, and that is what we have here.

Most of the ones Sjökvist offers are folksong arrangements, partsongs, soprano solo with choral background, and some original offerings. There is not a lot of contrapuntal writing, preferring instead homophonic textures, where a few contain humming or oohing in the background. The harmonic movement is pretty conservative, set in a Romantic manner even if some of the minor and modal settings bear strange harmonic twists and tinges of color.

While Alfvén is probably best known for his moody pieces, such as Aftonen and Vaggvisa, there are a decent number of uptempo songs as well, providing the listener a goodly variety across the program.

I like that the physical media has a blurb speaking to every choral song, including dates and locations, but it would have been even better to have been provided the song texts and translations. None are given here, except for the title and its English equivalent. Thus, when the liner notes mention a humorous or tragic story attached to a song, we are never given the chance to know what exactly is being sung about.

Coming from Gustaf Sjökvist's recording of Alfvén's cantata, The Lord's Prayer (BLOG), it is no surprise the choral singing on this recording is excellent. I am not familiar with the Ladybird music label, but they capture the chorus at an ideal distance for a well-balanced ensemble and a unanimity of choral sound, all the while creating a natural sonic landscape.

At 50 minutes, this recording isn't terribly long, but I suspect at 60-70 minutes one might begin to tire of a complete program of Alfvén. Even a more recent recording of just Alfvén's choral music, Papillon with the Erik Westberg Vocal Ensemble, times a little less with 20 songs, sharing only seven pieces between the two. Perhaps there just isn't that much mixed choral music from the composer.

 

 

 

Soloists
Annika Eliasson Frick, soprano

Ensembles
Gustaf Sjökvist Chamber Choir
Gustaf Sjökvist, conductor

Label: Ladybird
Year: 2000
Timing: 49.30

 

 

 

 

A fine recording dedicated to the choral music of Hugo Alfvén, sung beautifully, with quality engineering.

The one competing CD offers seven songs this one doesn't have, but either would be an excellent choice to explore Alfvén's compositions for chorus.

Gustaf Sjökvist has the benefit of having conducted Alfvén programs before, including ones with orchestra. A lovely program.