Sweden's greatest song writer was Carl Michael Bellman (1740-95). To Swedes Bellman's ballads are as familiar as Stephen Foster's are in the U. S. Year ago Hendrik Willem van Loon, literary journeyman, heard some, resolved to investigate the "Anacreon of the North," the "Last of the Troubadours." Last year van Loon and Grace Castagnetta, U. S. pianist spent five months in Sweden, acquainting themselves with Bellman's background and with the Swedish language which, in his songs, is almost untranslatably idiomatic. This week they published the result: 20 songs, with piano accompaniment arranged by...
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