The flute concerto Älvalek was composed for and in close collaboration with the soloist Laura Michelin.
It is a joint commission between Västerås Sinfonietta, Uppsala Chamber Orchestra and Dalasinfoniettan.
The music was inspired by August Malmström’s well-known painting, with the same name, which hangs in the National Museum in Stockholm.
The moon illuminates a quiet landscape where a stream slowly flows. Trees stand out like dark silhouettes against the sky. Hand in hand, fairies sweep through the landscape like a thin veil. Their movements resemble a ring dance. A fairy kisses the surface of the water or is reflected in it.
According to Swedish folklore, fairies lived in nature and were often seen dancing on hills, burial mounds, mountains and forests. People were wary of them so as not to risk misfortune or illness. August Malmström’s Älvalek was spread through reproductions in newspapers and as illustrations, and became a very well-known motif.

In the flute concerto, the flute represents the fairy and the orchestra its choir that sings and dances.
The concerto is divided into three movements.

1) Introduction & Toccata: Fairy Dances and Songs:
In the Introduction, the soloist begins mysteriously, and so does the orchestra, describing a landscape in fog. If you look closely at the painting, you can see that the varnish appears to have peeled off. These images are translated into whistling and scraping in the string. The mood is suddenly broken by a fast “Fairy Dance” and a contrasting singable “Fairy Song”. The fog returns but in a more discreet, tenderly raw character. The dance and song resume again and lead to a solo cadenza that culminates in a blazing conflagration in the orchestra. The music dissolves into an ethereal, alien environment towards the end of the movement with whistles, hollowed-out flageolets and a quickly fading flute.

2) Aria – Fantasia: Mirage:
The string chords together with the vibraphone slowly fade in like a mirage from the morning mist where the flute comments like a “song without words”. This is the calmest movement and has the most fluid pulse in the entire concert. It leads to a transition that is a song to the moon.

3) Corale: Moon Song.
The moon shines brightly from a block chord in the chorale-like introduction, where the flute melodically embellishes the music like the movement of fairies in the mists. This leads to a contrapuntal section with a moving woodwind section, pedaling strings and brass, which finally leads to a climax where the music gradually fades down to the mysterious beginning of the introduction.
There are some so-called extended techniques that are used, e.g. aeolian sounds, overblowing, whistle tones for the flute and some of them are translated into the orchestral sound. Unlike previous solo concerts where there has often been some kind of underlying plot, this is only about describing different moods.