Sinding, Christian

Christian Sinding – Symphony no. 3 in F major, Op.121

(b. Kongsberg, 11. January 1856 – d. Oslo, 3. December 1941)

Con fuoco p.1
Andante p.73
Allegro p.109
Non troppo allegro p.152

First performed on 10th January 1921 by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Arthur Nikisch.

Preface
As a single light shining brightly obscures other objects of equal or greater worth from sight, such is the fate of so-called ‘one-work’ composers whose popular favourite keeps other contenders firmly in the shadows. The Norwegian composer, Christian Sinding, got in with Peters, the Leipzig publishing house, at an early stage of his career. His piano piece Frühlingsrauschen (‘Rustle of Spring’), Op.32, no.3 of 1896 is easily his best-known composition, and provided Peters with its greatest ever hit; it is one of those happy pieces that sound more difficult to play than they actually are! But its success has blinded the public to the fact that Sinding was an extremely prolific composer who wrote a large number of other piano works, 250 songs, chamber and instrumental music, an opera – Der heilige Berg, Op.111 – and orchestral compositions, including four symphonies.

Having received violin lessons when a schoolboy, in 1874 Sinding followed the lead of his famous countryman, Grieg, and went to the Leipzig Conservatory to further his instrumental studies with Henry Schradieck, as well as pursuing theory and composition with Salomon Jadassohn. His talent for composition emerged during the four years he spent in Leipzig; the German cultural milieu affected the young man deeply and it remained a constant throughout his long life. He spent some 40 years living in Germany, receiving grants and bursaries from the Norwegian government, and in 1921 being awarded a national prize for his contribution to music. After a year’s teaching at the Eastman School at Rochester in the U.S.A (1920-1) he settled in Oslo where, in 1924, the state gifted him the house ‘Grotten’ where the eminent Norwegian poet and playwright Henrik Wergeland had lived in the early 19th century. Although his posthumous reputation in Norway has been somewhat sullied by his late-life association with the Nazi party, Sinding remains the most important Norwegian Romantic composer after Grieg. …

Read full preface / Das ganze Vorwort lesen> HERE