프란츠 베어발트
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프란츠 베어발트(Franz Berwald: 1796-1868 /70세)는 스웨덴 낭만파 음악가. 그의 작품은 그의 생전에 잘 알려지지 못했다. 원래 성형외과 의사였으며 나중에는 목재공장과 유리공장을 운영했기 때문이었다.
이름에서 알 수 있듯 독일 계통이다. 바이올리니스트이면서 작곡가인 베어발트는 그의 생전동안에는 빛을 보지 못하였으나 오늘날에는 19세기 스웨덴을 대표하는 작곡가로 인정받고 있다. 그의 대표작은 4개의 교향곡이다. 그러나 오페라에도 재능을 보여 스웨덴의 야담과 실화를 중심으로 4편의 오페라를 작곡했다. . 그러나 현재는 그의 작품들이 재인식되어 19세기뿐만 아니라 스웨덴 역사에 있어서 대표적인 작곡가로 추앙받고 있다.
Piano Concerto in D-major (1855)
Mov.I: Allegro con brio 00:00
Mov.II: Andantino 09:27
Mov.III: Allegro molto 14:41
Pianist: Niklas Sivelöv
Orchestra: Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester
Conductor: Okko Kamu
Franz Berwald was one of the seminal composers of the first half of the nineteenth century, a precursor of the Scandinavian symphonic school which would come to fruition a half century later. Yet as a musician in his native Sweden he labored in obscurity and was forced to make a living in such nonmusical fields as glassblowing, lumbering, orthopedics, and physical therapy.
Berwald was born in Stockholm. His father, a German orchestral violinist, imparted some training on his son, but Franz was largely self-taught. At 16 he joined the Royal Opera Orchestra and began to compose. Berwald spent some time in Norway, then went to Berlin to study music further. From there he went to Vienna where he found an audience for his work. There his opera Estrella di Soria was performed to acclaim. In 1841, he married in that city and the following year produced his first symphony. That same year he returned to Sweden only to find that his reputation had not preceded him. Nonetheless he continued to compose, turning out operas and three more symphonies.
Failed performances induced Berwald to go abroad again, unsuccessfully to Paris where he received no performances, and to Vienna where once again he found an appreciative audience for his opera A Swedish Country Betrothal. It was ironic then that in his homeland he obtained neither the post of music director at Uppsala University nor that of court conductor.
Thwarted in his first career, the composer was often forced to turn to other endeavors such as glass-blowing and running a sawmill. But Berwald, a kindly and humanistic man, seemed to find his non-musical niche in orthopedics and in blazing trails in its accompanying physical therapy, specializing in congenital spinal deformities of children. Here would seem to be a rarity among creative artists, one to put the inner urge and ego on hold sublimating these in tending to the external needs of humankind.
Finally, in his sixties, musical breaks came his way in Sweden. His first Vienna-period opera Estrella di Soria was performed and earlier instrumental works began to appear in print. He was accepted in the Swedish Academy and made a professor of composition in 1867. But, sadly, Berwald succumbed to pneumonia the following year.
Like his contemporary Berlioz, Berwald was a visionary. He preferred to use established forms to contain a unique mode of thought. His four symphonies (1842-1845) are especially significant as they are precursors of Sibelius and Nielsen in their streamlined contours and unexpected harmonic and melodic devices. As such, he was one of the most important of the early Romantics.
His Piano Concerto, finished in 1855, intended for his piano pupil Hilda Aurora Thegerström, who continued her studies with Antoine François Marmontel and Franz Liszt, did not see the light of day until 1904, when Berwald's granddaughter Astrid performed it at a Stockholm student concert. Particularly in its brilliant last movement it may be compared favourably to Robert Schumann or Edvard Grieg. Its three movements are played without a break.