Underrated Composer: Franz Berwald

Hello, composers of the forum!

I’m curious if anyone’s acquainted with the work of Swedish composer Franz Berwald (1796-1868). His music wasn’t received well in his own lifetime, and he had to take other jobs to support himself. Liszt praised his work, telling him “You truly possess originality, but you will not enjoy success during your lifetime. Nevertheless you must persevere.”

This Symphony in C major, never performed until sixty years after his death, is full of harmonic color, and formal innovation, not least in its merging of the Scherzo and slow movement into a single movement. I definitely hear it as an early precursor to Sibelius, and it has some lovely and quite striking moments. What do you think of it?

Edited 36 minutes ago36 min by CrystalCanon

Thanks for sharing this. I’ll have a proper dive soon.

I read he composed this in the mid 1840s.

Initially the form seems unusual and some ideas are wanting more imagination and drama. But I need to listen to the whole thing to make a proper assessment.

I feel that i’d have rather not known he was not successful commercially for i wouldn’t necessarily be looking for reasons to validate that 😅☹️

Edited 20 minutes ago20 min by Markus Boyd