# A Winter's Tale (Larsson)

A Winter's Tale (in Swedish: En vintersaga; subtitled: Four Vignettes after Shakespeare (Fyra vinjetter till Shakespeares)), Op. 18, is a four-movement suite for orchestra written from 1937 to 1938 by Swedish composer Lars-Erik Larsson. The Epilogue (No. 4) is often performed and recorded as a stand-alone concert piece.

## Background

Beginning in 1937, the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation—the country's national, publicly funded radio—employed Larsson as a composer-in-residence, music producer, and conductor; his main task was to write music to accompany various radio programs. One of Larsson's colleagues was the Swedish poet Hjalmar Gullberg, who had joined Swedish Radio the year before and headed its drama division. Together, the two men developed a genre of popular entertainment they called the "lyrical suite", which alternated recited poetry with musical interludes. Larsson's first commission of this type was to compose four orchestral vignettes to accompany the 1938 radio recitation of a Swedish-language translation Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale; he subsequently published these as A Winter's Tale.

## Structure

A Winter's Tale, which lasts about 9 to 10 minutes, is in four movements. They are as follows:
* Siciliana: Andantino
* Intermezzo: Allegro leggiero
* Pastoral: Allegretto pastorale
* Epilogue (Epilog): Andante

## Instrumentation

A Winter's Tale is scored the following instruments:
* Woodwinds: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in B♭), and 2 bassoons
* Brass: 2 horns (in F), 2 trumpets (in C), and trombone
* Percussion: timpani
* Strings: violins, violas, cellos, double basses, and harp
Gehrmans Musikförlag [sv] published the suite in 1945.

## Recordings

The sortable table below lists commercially available recordings of A Winter's Tale:
| No. | Conductor | Orchestra | Rec. | Time | Recording venue | Label |
| 1 | Stig Westerberg | Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra | 1977 | 10:19 | Stockholm Concert Hall | Swedish Society Discofil [sv] |
| 2 | Jan-Olav Wedin | Stockholm Sinfonietta | 1980 | 10:24 | Cirkus | BIS |
| 3 | Mario Bernardi | CBC Vancouver Orchestra | 1992 | 10:02 | Orpheum | CBC Records |
| 4 | Dorrit Matson | New York Scandia Symphony | 2001 | 10:53 | Trinity Church | Centaur |
| 5 | Christopher Warren-Green | Jönköping Sinfonietta | 2002 | 9:51 | Jönköping Concert Hall | Intim Musik [sv] |
| 6 | Alexander Hanson | Norrköping Symphony Orchestra | 2009 | 10:51 | De Geerhallen | Naxos |
| 7 | Andrew Manze | Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra [sv] | 2011 | 10:19 | Helsingborg Concert Hall [sv] | cpo |

## Notes, references, and sources
### Notes

* ↑ The original Swedish is "lyrisk svit".
* ↑ Refers to the year in which the performers recorded the work; this may not be the same as the year in which the recording was first released to the general public.
* ↑ S. Westerberg–Swedish Society (SCD 1051) 1997
* ↑ J. Wedin–BIS (CD–165) 1988
* ↑ M. Bernardi–CBC (SMCD5157) 1996
* ↑ D. Matson–Centaur (CRC2607) 2002
* ↑ C. Warren-Green–Intim Musik (IMCD 082) 2003
* ↑ A. Hanson–Naxos (8.572339) 2009
* ↑ A. Manze–cpo (777 671–2) 2014

### References

* 1 2 3 4 Gehrmans Musikförlag.
* ↑ Schlüren 2014, p. 14.
* ↑ Nyström 1993, p. 6.
* 1 2 Skans 1989, p. 2.
* ↑ Schlüren 2014, p. 15.
* ↑ Lundin 2002, p. 2.

### Sources

* "En vintersaga: Fyra vinjetter" [The Winter's Tale: Four vignettes]. gehrmans.se. Gehrmans Musikförlag. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
* Lundin, Peter (2002). Lars-Erik Larsson: God in Disguise / Little Serenade, Op. 12 / Winter's Tale, Op. 18 / Pastoral Suite, Op. 19 (CD booklet). Translated by Schenck, Linda. Christopher Warren-Green & Jönköping Sinfonietta. Intim musik. p. 2–3. IMCD 082. OCLC 53054794
* Nyström, Martin (1993). Lars-Erik Larsson: Förklädd Gud (God in Disguise) / Pastoral Suite / Violin Concerto (CD booklet). Esa-Pekka Salonen & Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Sony Classical. p. 6–7. SK 64140. OCLC 34697048
* Schlüren, Christoph (2014). Lars-Erik Larsson: Symphony No. 1 / Music for Orchestra / Lyric Fantasy (CD booklet). Translated by Robinson, J. Bradford. Andrew Manze & Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. cpo. p. 13–17. 777 671–2. OCLC 880851753
* Skans, Per (1989). Lars-Erik Larsson: Förklädd Gud (God in Disguise), Op. 24 / Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 34 (CD booklet). Sten Frykberg & Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. BIS. p. 2–4. CD–96. OCLC 21568279
* Classical music
* Music