Johan Svendsen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johan Svendsen (September 30, 1840–June 14, 1911) was a Norwegian composer, conductor and violinist. Born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway, he lived most his life in Copenhagen, Denmark.

His father was a music teacher and Svendsen learned both the violin and clarinet from him. By the time he finished school, he was working as an orchestral musician, and occasionally made short concert tours as a violinist. In Lubeck, on one of his tours, he came to the attention of a wealthy merchant who made it possible for him to study from 1863-67 at the Leipzig Conservatory. He began his studies with Mendelssohn's favorite violinist, Ferdinand David, but problems with his hand forced him to switch to composition which he studied with Carl Reinecke.

In stark contrast to his more famous contemporary and close friend, Edvard Grieg, Svendsen was famous for his skill of orchestration rather than that of harmonic value. While Grieg composed mostly for small instrumentation, Svendsen composed primarily for orchestras and large ensembles. His most famous work is his romance for violin and orchestra. He was very popular in Denmark and Norway during his life both as a composer and a conductor, winning many national awards and honors. However this popularity did not translate into acceptance into the international repertory of classical music. He died in Copenhagen, aged 70.

One would have to go as far back as Schubert to find a composer who achieved the popular success Svendsen did with his first published work, the Op.1 string quartet in a minor. He quickly followed this with the Op.3 String Octet and Op.5 String Quintet both of which only added to his early fame. All of Svendsen's chamber music was written while he was at the Leipzig Conservatory, yet these works were not then, and should not now, be considered student works. By general consensus, Svendsen was regarded as one of the most talented students then at the Conservatory. His works won prizes and received public performances to much acclaim.

Though Svendsen was at one time intimate friends with Wagner, the latter does not seem to have influenced his music, which includes two symphonies, a violin concerto, and the romance for violin, as well as a number of Norwegian rhapsodies for orchestra.

[edit] References

Øystad Gaukstad article on Svendsen for Norwegian Cultural Council (NFK) LPs of Svendsens chamber music, 1981
Some of the information above appears on the website of Edition Silvertrust but permission has been granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.