Franz Berwald (1796-1868)
Complete Works for Piano Quintet
Almost everybody would agree that Franz Berwald was the music world's leading light in nineteenth-century Sweden. Many regard him as Sweden's foremost composer, but during his lifetime few of his countrymen appreciated his art. This was partly because symphonies, the genre at which he excelled, were little appreciated. Besides operas and Singspiele, more intimate forms of music practised in the home with friends were preferred, such as piano pieces, chamber music, works for male choir and solo songs. Most of what was written was unpretentious in the salon music vein.
Orchestral concerts were given sporadically by the Hovkapellet, the orchestra of the Royal Opera, but the few symphonies that were presented in these concerts were foreign and usually quite old. For decades in Sweden no new symphonies appeared, Adolf Lindblad's Symphony No. 1 being the only example. Its first performance in 1832 is significant from a musical historical point of view, but it hardly made an impact. Around ten years later the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra played it, but in Sweden Lindblad remained known exclusively for his songs and chamber music.
It is therefore easy to understand why Berwald the sophisticate found the antiquated Swedish music scene suffocating. In 1829, at the age of thirty-three, he left Sweden and moved to Berlin, where he remained for twelve years, working not as a musician but in one of the other professions he was obliged to practise during his lifetime in order to support himself. As a skilled orthopaedic surgeon he managed to make a successful living, from 1835 running his own orthopaedic institute. In his free time he wrote a not insubstantial amount of music, first and foremost operatic fragments, although nothing complete has emerged from this time. One can wonder why, since he ad found a more inspiring milieu.
In the spring of 1841 he closed the institute and moved to Vienna, by all accounts to continue his work in the orthopaedic field. He discovered, however, that the Viennese showed an interest in his music, which seems to have cleared his writers' block. Although he only remained in Vienna for a year he managed to write several works, including two symphonies, four orchestral fantasies and the opera Estrella de Soria. Some of the works were played immediately, including most of the opera. He himself conducted three of the shorter pieces. The reception he was given in this cosmopolitan city was more positive than any he had experienced before. One can understand why he might have felt that the world was ready for his music, even Sweden. After thirteen years abroad he decided to return home. In April 1842 he arrived in Stockholm with his bags full of new music.
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