Swedish Rhapsody No.1, Op.19 (Midsommarvaka)

If the name of Hugo Alfvén is little known anywhere outside Scandinavia, his music is familiar everywhere - or rather one work is, or rather one or two tunes from it are. Inspired by a rowdy peasant wedding at Skagen in the summer of 1903, Alfvén’s Swedish Rhapsody No.1 (originally published as Midsommarvaka or “Midsummer Vigil”) is actually packed with tunes, all of them folk songs and dances. Familiarity with the piece is limited to one or two tunes because the various light-music and pop arrangements that have proliferated over the last hundred years don’t go beyond the first two or three minutes, usually without taking into account the wonderfully tipsy treatment Alfvén applies to the two cheerful dances featured in the opening section. They ignore too the lovely middle section based on a folk song from Dalarna known as “Vallflickan från Mora” - the melody introduced by cor anglais over a pizzicato memory of the opening theme, repeated by horn and passionately developed by the strings. Strangely enough, although there are frequent allusions to them both before and after the quicker tempo returns, the two tunes are not recapitulated in their definitive form. Melodic material was evidently so thick on the ground at Dalama that Alfvén could not resist the opportunity to present two new, even more vigorous country dances in the closing section of the piece.

Alfvén’s later Swedish Rhapsodies, the Uppsalarapsodi and the Dalarapsodi, might not so much fun but they are certainly worth exploring. And then there are the five symphonies…

Rupert Avis ©2003