Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- A Biographical Note
- Introduction
- 1 Adam
- 2 Alfvén
- 3 Atterberg
- 4 Beethoven
- 5 Bizet
- 6 Borodin
- 7 Brahms
- 8 Donizetti
- 9 Gounod
- 10 Grieg
- 11 Handel
- 12 Leoncavallo
- 13 Mascagni
- 14 Massenet
- 15 Meyerbeer
- 16 Mozart
- 17 Puccini
- 18 Rangström
- 19 Rossini
- 20 Schubert
- 21 Sibelius
- 22 Richard Strauss
- 23 Verdi
- 24 Wagner
- 25 Björling's Remaining Recordings: A Survey of the Best (1920–60)
- 26 Evolution and Influence
- Notes
- Discography
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Alfvén
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- A Biographical Note
- Introduction
- 1 Adam
- 2 Alfvén
- 3 Atterberg
- 4 Beethoven
- 5 Bizet
- 6 Borodin
- 7 Brahms
- 8 Donizetti
- 9 Gounod
- 10 Grieg
- 11 Handel
- 12 Leoncavallo
- 13 Mascagni
- 14 Massenet
- 15 Meyerbeer
- 16 Mozart
- 17 Puccini
- 18 Rangström
- 19 Rossini
- 20 Schubert
- 21 Sibelius
- 22 Richard Strauss
- 23 Verdi
- 24 Wagner
- 25 Björling's Remaining Recordings: A Survey of the Best (1920–60)
- 26 Evolution and Influence
- Notes
- Discography
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
If Björling had been born a hundred years earlier, leading composers would surely have seized the opportunity to write for a voice of such rare beauty. In the central decades of the twentieth century, however, beauty of tone was often considered to be irrelevant to the expressive ethos of the age. Benjamin Britten once claimed to “loathe what people normally call a beautiful voice”: it was the much less generously endowed English tenor Peter Pears (born eight months before Björling) who, thanks to his close association with Britten, would leave the greatest mark on mid-century classical music. Yet not all composers of merit were deaf to the potential of the Björling sound. It is probable that Hugo Alfvén, now recognized as one of the finest Swedish composers of the twentieth century, had that voice in mind when he wrote one of his most memorable love songs in 1946. The composer was an unassuming man, but in June 1957 he found the courage to write to the tenor:
A few days ago I sent you my latest song: “Så tag mit hjerte.” It's the most wonderful, heartfelt poem I have ever set to music, so unspeakably tender that I can never read it without tears coming to my my eyes. Naturally my thoughts have gone to you and your interpretation of “Skogen sover”; but I simply have not dared send my latest song to you, for that would have seemed like an implicit request—would you like to record this song also?—and I didn't want to take the risk of receiving a negative answer. But now I feel that I have to take the risk.
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- The Bjorling SoundA Recorded Legacy, pp. 11 - 14Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012