Hugo Alfvén - Songs & Piano Pieces (Elin Rombo; Peter Friis Johansson)

Information

Composer: Hugo Alfvén

• Aftonen
• 7 Dikter av Ernest Thiel, Op. 28
• 4 Låtar från Leksand (after Lekatt Mats)
• 3 Österlingsånger, Op. 22
• Skärgårdsbilder, Op. 17
• 2 Lyriska stamningar, Op. 8
• Så tag mit hjerte

Elin Rombo, soprano

Peter Friis Johansson, piano

Date: 2022

Label: BIS

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Review

Recordings of Hugo Alfvén (1872-1960) mostly concentrate on his larger-scale works: five symphonies, several cantatas, and orchestral works, including the three Swedish Rhapsodies, of which the First, Midsummer Vigil, remains his best-known work. Not unlike Grieg, however, he was a gifted miniaturist and melodist. This very nicely produced BIS release focuses on 14 songs and two shorter piano cycles from the breadth of his career, performed on Alfvén’s own Steinway in the composer’s home (now a museum).

This year marks, as with Vaughan Williams, the 150th anniversary of Alfvén’s birth (he died less than two years after his greater English contemporary). The programme put together by Elin Rombo and Peter Friis Johansson ranges from the early Two Lyrical Moods of 1899, which cover many moods and textures, to the simpler, more overtly romantic late songs, ‘Evenings’ (better known in its choral original, Aftonen) and ‘So take my heart’. In between lie the rich and powerful cycle of seven songs on poems by a friend (and banker), Ernst Thiel (Op 28, 1908), and three settings of Anders Österling, Op 22 (1905), punctuated by two piano cycles, the four dances or låtar named for his house, Leksand, in 1914 – just as the Norwegian Harald Sæverud would do in a later war with his Songs and Dances of Siljustøl – and the more imposing Archipelago Pictures (1901 02).

Elin Rombo’s voice has a warmly natural tone and she sings here with delightful clarity and, where necessary, power. This can be heard in the Lyrical Moods and the seven Thiel songs. MariAnne Häggander recorded these (as well as ‘So take my heart’ and some of the Opp 22 and 28 sets) for Bluebell a decade or more ago but less engagingly than Rombo here. Friis Johansson is an exemplary accompanist and plays the two piano cycles with great sympathy. BIS’s sound is, as always, markedly more refined, capturing the domestic side of Alfvén beautifully.

— Guy Rickards

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Hugo Alfvén (1 May 1872 – 8 May 1960) was a Swedish composer, conductor, violinist, and painter. Born in Stockholm, he studied at the Royal College of Music, as well as in Brussels and Dresden. From 1910 to 1939 he was Director musices at the University of Uppsala. Alfvén is considered as one of Sweden's foremost composers whose music combined central European stylistic features with Swedish folk music. Among his works are a large number of pieces for male voice choir, five symphonies and three Swedish Rhapsodies. Alfvén was also a talented watercolor painter and a gifted writer.

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Swedish soprano Elin Rombo graduated from the Brandon University in Canada and the University College of Opera in Stockholm. During her studies she made her debut as Christa in The Makropoulos Case at the Royal Swedish Opera. Since then she has performed numerous roles there, such as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Musetta and Mimì in La bohème, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and the young Batsheba in the world premiere of Sven-David Sandström's Batsheba. Internationally, she has sung at the opera houses in Paris, Berlin, Gothenburg, and Frankfurt.

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Peter Friis Johansson (born 1983) is a Swedish classical pianist. He studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with Anders Kilström and Mats Widlund, and further develops his musicality with Konstantin Bogino. In 2014 Johansson took his first step in his US career with the gold medal at the International Piano-e-Competition in Fairbanks, Alaska. He is currently pursuing many projects, including performing the eleven completed piano sonatas by Franz Schubert. Johansson is also a keen performer of contemporary music, and has premiered the new piano concertos by Sven-David Sandström and Andrea Tarrodi.

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