Under the Mountain Hugo Alfvén’s Bergakungen (The Mountain King)

In 1916, Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén was commissioned by the Royal Swedish Opera for a ballet that he completed in 1922. He considered it one of his finest works, but after its first season in production, opening on 7 February 1923, it did not return to the stage until 1931. Even in the 1950s, Alfvén was mourning the lack of appreciation for this work.

Hugo Alfvén, ca 1906

Alfvén felt that the ballet gave him the opportunity to write music for all the moods of nature in the enchanted woods, ‘from summer beauty, in sunset and sunrise, in winter’s cold…’. He went on to say, ‘I had never had such a pleasant job as this’.

The story was written by the painter John Bauer, known in Sweden for his images of trolls and princesses.

John Bauer: One evening around midsummer, they went with Bianca Maria deep into the forest from The Princess and the Troll, 1913
(Stockholm: Nationalmuseum)

Alfvén started with Bauer’s comic libretto but gradually turned it into a darker and darker story, particularly after Bauer, his wife, and his son drowned in 1918 in an accident on a lake. The story is about a shepherdess who is captured by the mountain king before being rescued by her beloved. In a dark turn, they end up dying at the end in a snowstorm when the troll who befriended them abandons them because he didn’t get the girl. The original story Der Bergtagna (The Girl Imprisoned in the Mountain).

Prince Eugen: Snow figure. Sketch for stage decoration for Hugo Alfvén’s ballet Bergakungen, tableau 6, act III, 1922-23
(Prince Eugens Wldesmarsudde)

Alfvén’s full incidental music is just over an hour long, but it was cut down to a 4-movement suite by Alfven after the ballet was no longer staged. The suite captures the drama and dances of the original.

It opens with a highly dramatic overture.

Hugo Alfvén: Bergakungen (The Mountain King) Suite – I. Besvärjelse (Invocation) (Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Niklas Willén, cond.)

The Dance of the Troll Maiden is surprisingly sweet, given how thuggish the troll men are generally portrayed, as above.

Hugo Alfvén: Bergakungen (The Mountain King) Suite – II. Trollfickans dans (Dance of the Troll Maiden) (Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Niklas Willén, cond.)

The third movement, Summer Rain, is a delicate depiction of a light summer rain filtering down through the thick forest.

Hugo Alfvén: Bergakungen (The Mountain King) Suite – III. Sommarregn (Summer Rain) (Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Niklas Willén, cond.)

It is the last movement, Dance of the Shepherd Girl, that has become one of Alfvén’s signature pieces.

Hugo Alfvén: Bergakungen (The Mountain King) Suite – IV. Vallflickans dans (Dance of the Shepherd Girl) (Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Niklas Willén, cond.)

Even after the premiere, Alfvén had problems, including a lawsuit by Bauer’s brothers about his changes to the libretto. The choreography for the ballet was by Jean Börlin, who had choreographed for the Ballets Suédois to Paris in the 1920s; the Swedish Ballet was the primary challenger to Serge Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes in Paris at the time. The stage settings were by Prince Eugen, Duke of Närke, a noted Swedish landscape painter and fourth in line to the Swedish throne.