Beyond music, Hugo Alfvén was also a gifted painter with a refined technique and a masterful sense of color.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Alfvén saw himself as the discoverer and saviour of Swedish folk-music, often incorporating folk-music ideas into his original compositions.
Performer Biography
Orphei Drängar is often hailed as 'the world's best male-voice choir' due to its balanced tone, precision, and purity of intonation, despite consisting almost entirely of amateur singers.
Composition History
Hugo Alfvén served as the conductor of Orphei Drängar, a leading male choir, for 38 years, from 1910 to 1948.
Composer Biography
Hugo Alfvén's composition, Midsummer Vigil, is so famous that almost everyone can sing it, yet his name is relatively unknown outside Scandinavia.
Performer Biography
Orphei Drängar, the choir on this album, was founded in 1853 by students of Uppsala University and is considered a pioneer in modern male choir a cappella singing.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Alfvén's greatest strengths as a composer were his unique feeling for sonority and his melodic talent.
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