Franz Berwald, 1

I love all kinds of music, by all kinds of musicians. But I've always had a soft spot for musicians who are innovators, outsiders, or both.

And Franz Berwald (1796-1868) certainly was both. The son of a German concert violinist, he grew up in Stockholm, Sweden at a time when it was impossible to make a living as a composer there.

But that didn't keep him from trying. Berwald had a couple of relatively happy stays in Vienna, where he married, wrote his first symphony, and had two of his operas performed successfully. But he always came back to Stockholm, despite a near-total lack of recognition from the Swedish public and critics.

To support himself and his family, Berwald tried his hand at the glass-blowing business, and made an unsuccessful attempt to run a sawmill. Finally, he found a niche in the relatively new field of physical therapy. Throughout it all, he never stopped composing, although he gained no recognition until the very last years of his long life.

Berwald's music sounds strikingly original even today, with novel formal construction and strong, beautifully developed themes. He was fondest of his operas, but his symphonies are his best-known works. Championed by Sixten Ehrling, Neeme Jarvi, and Herbert Blomstedt, they have been performed around the world, and even have made it (finally) into the "standard repertoire" in Scandinavia. I once saw Blomstedt give a particularly moving performance of one of the symphonies with the San Francisco SO, who went on to make fine recordings of all four with him.

This lovely version of the first movement of Berwald's Symphony No. 3, with Roy Goodman and the Swedish RSO, gives you a good idea of his music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9akDcG4Sfk

Berwald's chamber works are equally original and often very moving. Here's the first movement of the Grand Septet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcytdk5FwM0

I hope that you will explore more of this man's fine music, and that looking at the woodcut in the last video wasn't too disturbing.....you can see that he was a determined man, can't you?