The Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under conductor Neeme Järvi present orchestral works by Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén and Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara. Born in Stockholm in 1872, Hugo Alfvén was influenced by Wagner and Richard Strauss, and his style is also permeated by the influence of Swedish folk music. The program features two works by Alfvén: Festspel (Festival Play), Op. 25, commissioned to inaugurate the new art nouveau building for the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, in 1908; and the Gustav II Adolf Suite, a suite from his incidental music for a play by Ludvig Nordström commemorating the 300-year anniversary of the death of the protestant Swedish monarch at the end of the Thirty Years War. The album also features the best-known work by Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928–2016): Cantus arcticus for which the composer took inspiration from the natural environment of northern Finland, incorporating two-channel tape recordings of birdsong as part of the orchestral texture.