Symphony No. 4 (Wirén)
Symphony in three movements by Dag Wirén
The Symphony No. 4, Op. 27, is a three-movement orchestral composition written from 1951 to 1952 by the Swedish composer Dag Wirén. Despite its numbering, the Fourth Symphony represents Wirén's third contribution to the form as a professional, arriving eight years after its predecessor, the Symphony No. 3. Swedish conductor Sten Frykberg premiered the new symphony with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm on 30 November 1952, and critics would eventually praise it as "one of the best Swedish symphonies of the fifties". At 17 minutes, the Fourth is the shortest, most concentrated of Wirén's four essays in the genre. Stylistically, it is austere and intellectual, recalling in particular the "desolate... Nordic tone" of late-period Sibelius.