Franz Berwald 1796 –1868
Franz Berwald was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1796. Having been largely self-taught, he did study music with his father, who had been a German violinist in the Royal Opera Orchestra, and composition with J. B. E. De Puy, the conductor of the court orchestra. The story of this composer is unique on account of the fact he never gave up as a musician. He achieved greatness and made his name in history despite many setbacks and disappointments.
Following in his father’s footsteps, he joined the Royal Opera Orchestra at the age of 16, having held the position until he composed his Grand Septet for clarinet, bassoon, horn, and string quartet in 1828. It was at this time that, due to the lack of enthusiasm for his music in Sweden and financial difficulty on account of his father’s death in 1825, he travelled abroad to make his career in music. After a tour in Norway, he studied in Berlin for a time, having received a scholarship from Sweden’s king. To make a living, he started an orthopaedic and physiotherapy clinic in Berlin in 1835 and was able to get by quite well. He had even invented a great deal of orthopaedic devices which were still used in the following century.
Determined to make a career in music, Berwald set forth to Vienna, Austria, where his opera, Estrella di Soria, was performed. He also ended up getting married there to a woman named Mathilde Scherer. In 1842, he got the chance to hear the performance of a symphony he had written, La Sérieuse. This was to be the only one of his symphonies that he will have seen during his lifetime.
He then returned to Sweden, where he was not received with open arms. In fact, despite his success abroad, the audiences in Sweden were less than impressed. The Royal Opera performance of his operetta(-a short opera), Modehandlerskan, in 1845 turned out to be a complete flop. Nevertheless, Berwald maintained his love for music and composed three more symphonies, including one of his best works, Sinfonie singuliére. This work, in particular, shows his superior orchestration skills, and although it only contains three movements instead of the usual four in a symphony, it is probably one of the best works he had ever written.
Travelling throughout Europe, he did experience bouts of success. In Vienna, one of his operas named Ein Landliches Verlobungsfest in Schweden (A Swedish Country Engagement Party), was performed. He was even made an honorary member of the Mozarteum Academy for Music in 1847. Nonetheless, once again, upon his return to Sweden, his efforts to become a musical director at Uppsala University as well as the director of the court orchestra turned out to be a string of failure and disappointment.
During this time, to get by, he had been forced into a series of jobs to earn a living. For example, he became a manager of a Swedish glass factory in Angermanland for ten years starting in 1849. Despite the consumption of time set forth by his job as manager, this did not keep him from devoting as much time as possible to teaching and composing. After publishing a series of chamber works, the Stockholm Royal Opera ended up performing Estrella di Soria in 1862.
After completing his last opera in 1864, Drottningen av Golconda(the Queen of Golconda), he had finally been accepted into the Fellowship of the Swedish Academy, becoming a professor of composition in 1867. His dream of being truly accepted as a great musician in his own country had become a reality. Unfortunately, within a year, at the peak of his career, he passed away due to pneumonia. A truly sad ending for such a great man, yet his dreams really did become reality. One of the, if not the best Swedish composer of all time, he will not only be remembered for his gift of music to humanity, but also for the perseverance he had shown in times of hardship.
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