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, partly owing to his intimate knowledge of Swedish folk music. He was no narrow ‘provincial’, however, but a highly sophisticated musician who spent ten years travelling throughout Europe. Nor were his talents confined to music. He was an engaging writer and an accomplished watercolourist who once contemplated a career as a painter.

Alfvén’s painterly instincts are reflected in a colourful and virtuosic flair for orchestration, which has been compared wilh that of Richard Strauss. Music lovers who know him best as the popular, cheerful entertainer will discover in the works recorded here a more elegiac and dramatic side: sometimes melancholy, even turbulent, but characterised, too, by a bacchanalian exuberance.