What a strange mixture of the old and new Hugo Alfvén’s music represents! His Fifth Symphony, which he worked on for some 20 years in the 1940s and ’50s, still has exposition repeats in its first and last movements that serve no other purpose than to make them longer than they need to be. This is particularly true of the finale, which is the most episodic part of this otherwise extremely pleasing and colorful work. Alfvén’s habit of using single percussion instruments to color entire movements also is delightfully naïve, and quite usefully indicative of their character: tam-tam in the turbulent first movement, xylophone on the spooky scherzo, and triangle in the optimistic finale. The slow movement, perhaps the most beautiful part of the symphony, speaks for itself entirely in terms of Romantic melody at its best.
Niklas Willén’s Alfven cycle has had its ups and downs, but this conclusion is definitely an “up”. The Norrköping Symphony plays with confidence and fervor, and while Willén adds about six minutes to Järvi’s timing on his otherwise excellent BIS recording, he never sounds slow. Alfvén was nothing if not expansive, and if his formal touch was never all that deft, he did know how to fill up time with arresting ideas, glowingly scored. A serenely lovely Andante religioso, for strings, harp, and celesta, makes a perfect encore, one that puts the finale of the symphony’s straining for heroic effect in its proper perspective in the gentlest and most affecting way. Naxos’ sonics for this production are also excellent. Very enjoyable indeed. [3/21/2007]
