Hugo Alfvén regarded his Symphony No 1 (1896) as the first ‘written in the Swedish language’. It gets a little tied up in the closing pages of its otherwise clearly argued opening Allegro; the Andante is at its best when it breaks momentarily free from formal symphonic shackles; the Scherzo revels deliciously in that very formality and the finale is a true and impressive culmination that maintains momentum through varied shifts in scenery.
It’s in the latter feature that we hear Alfvén’s early promise as a painter, an experience that peers through the subtlest of his orchestrations and his quasi-visual exploration of timbre and harmony.