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ADOLF FREDRIK LINDBLAD


At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was little to boast about in
Swedish music life. Even in the capital Stockholm it was of a very provincial
character. This was in great contrast to the rich flowering of the arts a few
decades earlier, during the reign of Gustavus III. His son Gustavus IV Adolphus
was not interested in art or music. He even had the Opera closed, and had he not
been deposed in 1809, the Opera House itself might have been razed to the
ground. But the musicians in the Kungliga Hovkapellet, the opera house
orchestra, were retained during this period and as such constituted the only
professional orchestra in the land, giving concerts of orchestral and chamber
music. A few currents from continental Europe did however reach Stockholm. In
the early 1780s Haydn's symphonies were beginning to be introduced there and
towards the end of the decade a symphony by Mozart was performed. One of
Beethoven's first two symphonies was performed in Stockholm for the first time
in 1805, although the Eroica had to wait until 1816. Sweden (1801 - 1878)  






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There was hardly an indigenous symphonic tradition to speak of in Sweden. A few
rather modest works bearing the title sinfonia had been composed during the
eighteenth century by Roman and Agrell, and several more by immigrant musicians,
above all from Germany. The foremost classical symphonist in Sweden at the time
is hardly known even to musicologists; Joachim Nikolas Eggert. His four
symphonies have such qualities that they should be in the repertory, even
internationally.
At that time symphonies were not something that interested Swedish audiences,
unless they were by foreign composers. Ambitious Swedish composers themselves
admitted, with the exception of Franz Berwald, that they could not establish
themselves as symphonists, a view borne out by the actions of audiences and
critics. They tended to compose on a smaller scale, above all undemanding songs
and piano music. Such intimate music belonged in the homes of the middle
classes, rather than on the concert platform. Symphonic repertory was heard in
such an environment, but not in orchestral form, rather as arrangements for
piano-four hands.

Especially renowned was the circle of the cultural elite that regularly used to
gather at the Uppsala home of Malla Silfverstolpe, a colonel's widow. The most
senior of this group was professor of history Erik Gustaf Geijer the elder, the
first in a line of poet-musicians, who wrote both text and music of his songs.
The romantic poet Atterbom would also be there. And in April 1823 Adolf Fredrik
Lindblad was welcomed for the first time to Malla's literary-musical salon.

Lindblad was from the Swedish province of Ostergötland. He had learned to play
the piano and flute, and at the age of fifteen had a flute concerto of his
performed in Norrköping. However shortly after this his well-intentioned
foster-father sent him to learn a trade in Hamburg. On his return he divided his
time between office work and piano lessons, but when he moved to Uppsala in
spring 1823 he had decided to devote himself entirely to music.
He received lessons in harmony for a year or so from one of Uppsala University's
director musices, J.C.F.Haeffner, but with Malla Silfverstolpe's help he was
able to spend a year in Berlin, where he studied composition with Zelter and
struck up a warm friendship with Zelter's star pupil, the seventeen year-old
Felix Mendelssohn.
Back in Sweden in 1827, Lindblad started a piano school in Stockholm, which he
headed until 1861. For many years he was the favoured music-teacher to the Crown
Prince, the future Oscar 1, and later to the King's musical children Prince
Gustavus and Princess Eugenie, both of whom also composed.

After only a year at Uppsala Lindblad had his first works published. This was a
collection of songs by him and his older friend Geijer. By the end of the 1820s
he was composing the songs, romanser, Lieder or simple folk-songs that made him
hugely popular during his life, and for which he is especially remembered today.
He wrote over 200 such songs, supplying his own texts to more than a third of
them, mostly strophic and idyllic in character. Without drawing directly on
folk-music they seem genuinely 'Swedish'.
But early on Lindblad the composer aspired to music that would place much
greater demands on him and those who would perform it. And on the audiences that
would hear it. In 1831 he completed a Symphony in C major. The first movement
was performed the same year at the Riddarhuset in Stockholm, but the first
complete performance of the symphony took place in the same location on 25th
March 1832.

The Symphony is an impressive début, of imposing proportions, so that with all
repeats observed it takes around 40 minutes to perform. It is clear that
Lindblad was inspired by models from the Viennese school of Classicism.
One recognises the Mozart of Mozart's last symphonies, on occasions in almost
literally borrowed motifs and phrases. Here and there one is reminded of Haydn
and more often of the early symphonies of Beethoven. The movements are
well-crafted in form and thematic material. Lindblad realised that the kind of
pretty melody he so naturally fashioned for his songs would not be especially
suitable for symphonic development, not even in the slow third movement, and
that a different kind of thematic material was called for. Lindblad's excellent
orchestrations surprise, for as far as is known he never had any formal training
in writing for an orchestra.
Lindblad's Symphony No. 1 was very coolly received in Stockholm. There really
was no market for symphonies during the first decades of the nineteenth century.
Franz Berwald, who was five years older than Lindblad, had already discovered
this. His Symphony in A major was given a single performance in 1821 and
received scathing criticism. He was later to meet even more stubborn resistance
to his music.

Berwald lived in Berlin during the 1830s, where he was a failure as an composer
of opera but made a successful living as an orthopaedic surgeon. Of the four
magnificent symphonies he composed in the 1840s only one was performed during
his lifetime. This illustrates the lack of faith in the abilities of Swedish
composers to write symphonies, as well as the wide-spread prejudice and lack of
interest from audiences and critics. However Berwald's harsh treatment at home
can partly be explained by his own personality and arrogant behaviour. Although
they both lived in Stockholm at the same time for many years, Berwald and
Lindblad seldom had much to do with each other. In contrast to Berwald,
Lindblad.was an extremely charming and enthusiastic man, attracting the
attention of many ladies in his circle. The much older Malla Silfverstolpe fell
deeply in love with him, and an affair with his pupil, the young Jenny Lind,
looked almost certain to destroy Lindblad's marriage at one stage.
The reception given to Lindblad's Symphony in C major in Stockholm caused his
friend Erik Gustaf Geijer to mount a sharp attack on Swedish musical tastes and
the ignorant critics' pack. Lindblad later obtained some redress when the
Symphony was played at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig under Mendelssohn and later
received a very positive review from Robert Schumann in the leading German music
journal. This resulted in the publication of the Symphony by the distinguished
publishers Breitkopf & Härtel.

Following the meagre success of his opera Frondörerna (The Rebels) at the Royal
Opera in Stockholm his desire to compose on a grand scale waned. He was content
to be celebrated by the great Swedish public for the popularity of his songs as
'the father of Swedish song' or (less appropriat) 'a Swedish Schubert'.
However for his own enjoyment and for those in private circles in the capital
who cultivated chamber music on a high amateur level, he composed several works:
between seven and ten string quartets, three violin sonatas, a couple of string
quintets, a piano trio and some small pieces for piano. Very little of this
instrumental music is known, much less available in print, but those who have
come across it have found it well-crafted and pleasing.

It took many years and much effort on the part of Foroni, director of the
Hovkapellet, to persuade Lindblad to write another symphony. Symphony No. 2 in D
major was first performed on 6th May 1855 during a very long concert which also
included, amongst other items, Beethoven's Ninth. It is perhaps not surprising
that in such a context Lindblad's Second seemed somewhat pale and insignificant
to the audience. And that no publisher deemed it fit for publication.
Artistically however Lindblad's Symphony No. 2 is in no way inferior to his
First Symphony. It is very well constructed. The instrumentation is just as
elegant, his mastery of form greater and the counterpoint more striking. The
thematic material is carefully chosen. The musical language does not have a
specifically nationalist colour, still basing itself on Mozart and Beethoven,
but romantic influences now come more clearly to the fore; traces of Mendelssohn
and Schumann can be heard. In the Scherzo there are elements which remind of
Berwald; quite by chance, for when would Lindblad have had the opportunity to
hear Berwald's orchestral music, or even to study a score? Perhaps the
symphony's closing moments sound familiar?
Of course, it is Mozart. Cherubino's aria from Act 1 of Le nozze di Figaro.



P- G Bergfors
English Version: Andrew Smith

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