Wilhelm Peterson-Berger

Wilhelm Peterson-Berger - full name Olof Wilhelm Peterson-Berger - (27 February 1867, Ullånger, Ångermanland, Sweden — 3 December 1942, Östersund, Sweden) was a Swedish composer and music critic.

The composer

Peterson-Berger studied at the Stockholm Conservatory from 1886-89 and then in Dresden for a year. [Haglund R. Peterson-Berger in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ed Sadie S. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997.]
He is best known for three albums of national romantic piano pieces entitled "Frösöblomster I, II and III" ("Frösö Flowers"), which includes the often performed "Vid Frösö kyrka" ("At Frösö Church") and "Sommarsång" ("Summer Song"). The sets were composed during a time of 18 years (1896 - 1914) and brought together afterwards as a collection and represents the romantic, nationalistic and typical Swedish mindset. The most famous of the pieces, "Sommarsång" ("Summer Song") reminds of the warm, calm, harmonic bright pre-summer evenings where the sun almost never goes down (in particularly not in the north where Wilhelm lived) and was the great breakthrough for Vilhelm. This piece is still known to about every Swede, even to people generally uninterested to music and the majority of young piano students in the Nordics have been taught this piece. His songs for vocal ensemble are also still regularly performed, and are part of the core repertoire of Swedish choirs.

His main musical influences were Grieg, Söderman and Wagner as well as Swedish folk idiom [Percy G. Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, An Introduction. Stockholm, Wilhelm Peterson-Berger Society, 1982.] . His other works include the five symphonies - among them are no.2 "Sunnanfärd" and no.3 "Same-Ätnam" generally considered the best - as well as the operas "Ran", "Arnljot", "Domedagsprofeterna" ("The Doomsday Prophets") and "Adils och Elisiv" ("Adils and Elisiv").
He was stage manager Stockholm Opera from 1908-10. His command of the larger forms, in both architecture and instrumentation, is disputed.
The opera "Arnljot" has nevertheless become something of a symbol for the province of Jämtland and is regularly performed there, as a "musical drama", at Arnljotlägden on Frösön, close to Peterson-Berger's former home, Sommarhagen. "Domedagsprofeterna" is the antithesis of Arnljot – a light festive musical comedy about the 17th century set in Uppsala, while the saga "Adils och Elisiv" where Swedish ‘talsång’ (speechsong) attained its purest expression is a work extolling P-B’s belief in humanism and the goodness of man [Percy G. Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, An Introduction. Stockholm, Wilhelm Peterson-Berger Society, 1982.] .

He also wrote about eighty songs, many of which are based upon Erik Axel Karlfeldt poems (for example "Aspåkerspolska").

Work list (partial)

Orchestral

*Symphony No. 1 in B flat major, "Baneret" ("The Banner"), 1889-1903, revised 1932-33. Movements: "När vi först drogo ut", "Mellan fedjerna", "Vid hjältebåren", "Mot nya vårar".
*Symphony No. 2 in E flat major, "Sunnanfärd" ("The Journey of Southerly Winds"), 1910. Movements: "Stiltje - Seglats", "Rosenstaden: Dionysoståget - I Eros tempel - Symposion", "Hemlängtan - För sunnanvind".
*Symphony No. 3 in F minor, "Same Ätnam" ("Symfonia Lapponica"), 1913-15. Movements: "Forntidsbilder", "Vinterkväll", "Sommarnatt", "Framtidsdrömmar".
*Symphony No. 4 in A major, "Holmia", 1929
*Symphony No. 5 in B major, "Solitudo", 1932-33
*Orientalisk Dans ("Oriental Dance"), 1889-1890
*Violin concerto in F sharp minor, 1915-1928
*Romance in D minor for violin and orchestra, 1915
*Törnrosasagan ("The Story of the Sleeping Beauty"), 1934

Opera

*Ran, 1899-1900.
* Lyckan ('The Happiness'), 1903
*Arnljot, 1907-09
*Domedagsprofeterna ('The Doomsday Prophets'), 1912-1917
*Adils and Elisiv, 1921-24

Vocal

*Sveagaldrar, cantata, 1897
*Part songs/music for choir: Tio sånger för blandad kör; Album, 8 sånger för blandad kör (including his setting of J P Jacobsen’s ‘Stemning’; Juninatt (words by M J Lermontov translated by W P-B; Guldfågel; Trädet, Ingerid Sletten, Prinsessen (words Bjornstjerne Bjornson); Våren kom en Valborgsnatt; Hvile i Skoven – Chorus mysticus (words J S C Welhaven); Sommarkväll.
*Solo songs: Jamtlandsminnen (Memories from Jamtland) opus 4 (1893), Ur Fridolins visor (From the melodies of Fridolin) with words by E A Karlfeldt (1900), Ur Hösthorn (1928).

Piano music

*Frösöblomster ("Fröso Flowers"), 1896, 8 pieces including "Sommarsång", "Lawn tennis", "Till rosorna", "Gratulation" and "Vid Frösö kyrka"
*Frösöblomster II, 1900, 6 pieces
*Frösöblomster III: I sommarhagen, 1914, including "Intåg i Sommarhagen"
*Six songs for piano, 1897
*Färdminnen, 1908
*Earina, 1917, 7 pieces
*Italiana, 1922
*Anakreontika, two books, 1924 and 1936

Critic and writer

As well as being a composer, Peterson-Berger was also a respected though very controversial music critic for the Stockholm newspaper "Dagens Nyheter" ("News of the Day") from 1896-1930 [Haglund R. Peterson-Berger in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ed Sadie S. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997.] . He was conservative, some would say narrow-minded, and fought the increasing influence of modernism in music, especially from Arnold Schoenberg and his followers. His progress was hindered by many enemies whom he made through his writings; he attacked showy virtuousity and dry academicism with satire but also with strict conscientiousness [Haglund R. Peterson-Berger in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ed Sadie S. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997.] . For either composers or performers who did not conform to his taste (or who were young and insecure female musicians, to take one typical example), he was not above grave personal insults.
Other writings include ‘Svensk musikkultur’ (Swedish musical culture, 1911) which includes clearsighted and satirical attacks on the prevailing musical establishment, ‘Richard Wagner som kulturforeteelse’ (Richard Wagner as a cultural phenomenon, 1913) as well as translations of Tristan und Isolde (for a 1909 production in Stockholm), and Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy (1902) and Also sprach Zarathustra (1919) [Percy G. Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, An Introduction. Stockholm, Wilhelm Peterson-Berger Society, 1982.] .

The man

One acquaintance later recalled his surprise when, on a journey by train from Stockholm to Östersund and Frösön, the big man and notorious critic suddenly burst into tears and felt soft like a child as the bucolic landscape of his beloved Jämtland began to unfold outside the window.
P-B’s home on the island of Frösön near Östersund (where he spent his summers from 1914 and then lived permanently from 1930) is open to the public in the summer months and is much as the composer left it. The downstairs music hall has his grand piano (he was a competent pianist), a work room (with a ‘picture window’ looking out over Storsjön) and library (with his collection of books and scores), while upstairs the bedrooms may be viewed. He lived alone there with a butler and his cats. There is also a small café and books and CDs are sold.
Peterson-Berger is often simply referred to as “P-B” by Swedes.

References

Nationalencyklopedin, band 15 (1994) ("Swedish National Encyclopedia", in Swedish)

Percy G. Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, An Introduction. Stockholm, Wilhelm Peterson-Berger Society, 1982.

External links

*IMSLP|id=Peterson-Berger, Wilhelm|cname=Wilhelm Peterson-Berger
* [http://www.peterson-berger.se Peterson-Berger Institutet ] at www.peterson-berger.se
*http://www.sommarhagen.se
* [http://www.arnljot.se Arnljot 2008 ] at www.arnljot.se