Bendix, Victor

Victor Bendix – Symphony No. 2 (Summer Sounds from Southern Russia) op. 20

(b. Copenhagen, 17 May 1851 – d. Copenhagen, 5 January 1926)

Preface
Victor Emanuel Bendix was one of the most famous musical personalities of his time. He began composing as a teenager and wrote a quartet for oboe, flute, violoncello and an octet. So it is hardly surprising that he began his music studies at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen in 1867, directly in the opening year. Here he was taught by Niels Wilhelm Gade and Johann Peter Emilius Hartmann, among others, both of whom were involved in the founding of the conservatory. After these study years at the conservatory, which were influenced by Danish High Romanticism, Bendix travelled to Germany, where he came into contact with German Late Romanticism. In 1881 he was taught by Franz Liszt, with whom he built up a friendly relationship and with whom he also performed together in concerts.

In Denmark, Bendix was strongly committed to public concert life. As an educator, he left his mark on subsequent generations at the Copenhagen Conservatory, where he worked as Gade’s assistant and taught piano. In 1897 he founded the Philharmonic Concerts in Copenhagen and contributed, among other things, to the establishment of Richard Wagner’s music. Among other works, he conducted “Tristan und Isolde” and “Siegfried” in concert in the 1901/02 season – even before the staged premiere of these works in Denmark. Both in his homeland and internationally, he established himself as a celebrated composer, pianist and conductor. …

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