Hjalmar Borgstrøm


Hjalmar Borgstrøm was a Norwegian composer and music critic who played a prominent role in the musical life of his country in the first quarter of the 20th century.

Biography

Borgstrøm was born Hjalmar Jensen on 23 March 1864 in Christiania. His father, Carl Christian Jensen, was a civil servant and the family were keen amateur musicians. Borgstrøm showed an early aptitude for music and by the age of fifteen was a talented violinist. After studying composition and music theory in Oslo with Johan Svendsen and Ludvig Mathias Lindeman, he went to the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany for two years. On his return to Norway in 1889, he worked as a music critic for several newspapers and successfully premiered his cantata, Hvæm er du med de tusene navne. However, in 1890, he left Norway and was to live for the next thirteen years in Leipzig and Berlin, where he became a friend of the Italian composer and pianist Ferruccio Busoni whose musical philosophy he shared.
Borgstrøm returned to Norway in 1903, the year in which his symphonic poem for piano and orchestra, Hamlet, premiered to great acclaim in Oslo. The soloist at the premiere was the pianist Amalie Müller. Borgstrøm and Müller married the following year and she was to become a champion of his works. The period between 1903 and Amalie's death in 1913 marked Borgstrøm's most intense period of composition. Although, he is primarily known for his symphonic works, written in a late Romantic style with influences of Expressionism, he also composed 45 songs, most notably "Svalerne", "Rød valmue", and "Frossen skog", as well as two operas, neither of which was performed in his lifetime. He also became a highly regarded music critic, writing for Verdens Gang from 1903 to 1913 and Aftenposten from 1913 to 1925.
Borgstrøm died in Oslo in on 5 July 1925 at the age of 61. His works were regularly performed until World War II, and were then largely ignored. However, the 21st century saw a resurgence of interest in him. His two operas finally received their premieres over a hundred years after they were first composed – Thora paa Rimol in 2002 and Fiskeren in 2003.
His son was the linguist Carl Borgstrøm.

Principal works

  • String Quartet in C major, Op.6, 1887
  • Hvæm er du med de tusene navne, cantata, 1889
  • Symphony in G major, Op.5, 1890
  • Thora paa Rimol, opera in 2 acts, 1894
  • Fiskeren, opera in three acts, 1900
  • Hamlet, symphonic poem for piano and orchestra, Op.13, 1903
  • Jesus i Gethsemane, symphonic poem, Op.14, 1904
  • John Gabriel Borkman, symphonic poem, Op.15, 1905
  • Die Nacht der Toten, symphonic poem, Op.16, 1905
  • Sonata for Violin and Piano in G major, Op.19, 1906
  • Piano Concerto in C major, Op.22, 1910
  • symphony in D minor, Op.24, 1912
  • Violin Concerto in G major, Op.25, 1914
  • Tanken, symphonic poem, Op.26, 1917
  • Piano Quintet in F major, Op.31, 1919

Recordings