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.
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