BIS has previously released two discs with Malmö Symphony Orchestra performing symphonies by Gösta Nystroem (1890–1966). The cycle is completed with the present CD, which contains the first of the composer's six symphonies, Sinfonia breve, as well as the third, and perhaps most well-known, Sinfonia del mare.

Dedicated to ”all the sailors upon the seven seas” the latter work expresses Nystroem's lifelong fascination for the sea and the coast.

He shared this fascination with the Swedish poet Ebba Lindqvist, whose poem 'Det Enda' he incorporated in the central section of the symphony. The soloist on the present recording is the acclaimed mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman.