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He was a painter, author, conductor, violinist and
composer born in Stockholm, Sweden.
He was the fourth of six children, with his father being a master
tailor and a choral director, and after his father died in 1881, his family
was supported by his mothers income from her grocery store. Although he learned the
piano in 1883, he went to study at the Stockholm Conservatory in 1887 where
he concentrated on the violin and he took private lessons in
composition. After leaving
education he worked as a violinist in the Swedish court orchestra and at
Stockholm's Royal Opera, performing his first solo concert in 1893 at the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
He moved into conducting around 1897 and over the next decade he
took further studies in violin and conducting on a Jenny Lind scholarship,
and took up the posts of music director for a male voice choir and at the
University of Uppsala, coupled with touring extensively. For much of his career he composed
music that has been described as in a "late-Romantic idiom" and likened to
Richard Strauss. His
compositions include five symphonies, the ballet The Mountain King,
three "Swedish Rhapsodies", many art songs and numerous pieces for a male
voice choir. The guitarist
Chet Atkins recorded the theme of "Swedish Rhapsody No. 1" which became one
of his most successful releases and the artist Ritchie Blackmore covered it
in the Deep Purple Song "Lazy".
Aside from his work with music he was known as a gifted watercolour
painter and writer who wrote a 4-volume autobiography. He died in Falun, Sweden, in 1960
after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage in 1958. He was 88 years old. The Hugo Alfven Society has been set up to inform people
about his life and work.
Festival Overture recordings
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/N. Willen -
NAX 8.553962
Mountain King, The recordings
Royal Scottish National Orchestra - Niklas
Willen - Naxos 8.553962
Swedish Rhapsody recordings
Swedish Rhapsody
No. 1 (Midsummer's Vigil/Midsommervaka) recordings
Minnesota Orchestra / Eiji Oue - Reference
Recordings RR-80CD
Swedish Rhapsody No. 1
Royal Scottish National Orchestra / Niklas
Willen - Naxos 7 30099 47292 0
Swedish Rhapsody No. 3, (Dalecarlian Rhapsody)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Niklas Willen
- NAX 8.553729
Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Opus 7 recordings
Royal Scottish National Orchestra - Niklas
Willen - Naxos 8.553962
Sources:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Alfv%C3%A9n
- http://hemsidor.torget.se/users/s/SMIC/engindex.htm
- http://hemsidor.torget.se/users/s/SMIC/comp.htm
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