Life

A musical childhood (1879−1896)

Natanael Berg, who was born on 9 February 1879 in Stockholm, grew up in a musical home. His father Carl Johan Berg was a music teacher at the secondary schools Norra Latin and Norra Real and was also the organist at Skeppsholmskyrka (Skeppsholm’s Church). Berg’s mother, Ottilia Berg b. Åberg, studied piano at the Kungliga Musikkonservatoriet (The Royal Conservatory of Music). The composer, who had seven siblings, wrote in his memoirs that the family often sang together. His parents played piano four-handed and his father also practiced cello. ‘Yes, all there was in our little home was music.’ Berg received his first piano lessons from his mother and his father taught him the flute. At Norra Latin he also had tuition in organ playing and he was a psalm singer at the Skeppsholmskyrkan. Early on Berg improvised on the piano and at the age of nine he wrote his first composition. Jakob Adolf Hägg, who was a close friend of the Berg family, became aware of the young boy’s musicality and gave him some informal lessons.

Study years (1897−1909)

Between 1897 and 1900 Berg studied solo singing with Julius Günther who was also the teacher of the well-known baritone and opera director John Forsell, Berg’s cousin on his mother’s side. Berg also took lessons in harmony, but according to his own words it was ‘too stupid’. For a while he toyed with the idea of pursuing a career as an opera singer. After his graduation from school in 1898 he wished to study medicine, but that was only possible in Uppsala at that time. To be able to continue his studies at the conservatory, Berg decided to study veterinary medicine in Stockholm where he graduated in 1902. He became a district veterinarian in Byske, north of Skellefteå in Northern Sweden, where he stayed for three years. Most of his songs and piano pieces originated from his time there.

Privately he also studied Otto Malling’s book about instrumentation. In 1905 Berg turned to Wilhelm Stenhammar to seek advice, who asked him to send him some of his compositions. When they first met, Stenhammar complimented Berg’s song ‘Saul och David’ but suggested he take thorough formal studies. Berg resigned from employment as a veterinarian and returned to Stockholm in 1907 where he took lessons in counterpoint with Johan Lindegren. But his studies only lasted four months because Berg was unsatisfied with the tuition. Stenhammar encouraged the young composer to broaden his horizons: ‘See other art, painting, sculpture, architecture, theatre. And landscape and clothing and people. And of course hear music, the best. This is best done in Germany.’ And so in 1907/08 Berg went on his first study tour, which he financed on his own.

In Berlin Strauss’s Salome left a lasting impression on him while in Munich he heard Tristan und Isolde and parts of Parsifal for the first time as well as Eugen d’Albert’s Tiefland. For his songs ‘Saul och David’ and ‘Eros vrede’ Berg received the Statens tonsättarestipendium (the State Composer’s Scholarship) with which he financed a second study tour. Amongst others, this tour took him to Dresden, where he met Richard Strauss in person after the premiere of Elektra, and to Paris. In 1909 he travelled to Vienna and Prague. The continental musical life gave Berg many formative experiences and impulses for his further artistic work. In the same year he married German-born Berta Rexroth. In private and as a veterinarian he called himself Rexroth-Berg from then on, but not as a composer. He got divorced in 1925 and married his second wife Elsie Sandberg five years later. To finance himself, Berg served as a veterinarian in several Swedish regiments. He was promoted in 1929 to the rank of a major and retired ten years later in 1939.

An emerging composer (1909−1918)

Berg’s debut as a composer took place at a concert on 26 March 1909 where an orchestrated version of ‘Saul och David’ and ‘Eros vrede’ were performed with John Forsell as a soloist. During that time he wrote some songs based on poems by Nikolaus Lenau, among them ‘Traumgewalten’. This inspired Berg’s first orchestral work, a symphonic poem with the same title. It premiered in 1912 in Stockholm. Stenhammar who was an important adviser and critic for Berg over the past years refused the work because it was ‘outrageously German’. This led to a break between the two men − Stenhammar wrote to Carl Nielsen some years later: ‘Since then he is my bitter enemy’. When Traumgewalten was performed in Dortmund, it was complimented as pioneering work. Until today it is Berg’s most frequently played work.

Shortly after the premiere of the symphonic poem, the composer’s first opera Leila was staged at the Kungliga Teatern (the Royal Opera) in Stockholm. Symphonic works and stage music were the main focus in the following years. Berg’s first symphony Alles endet was entstehet from 1912/13 was influenced by the tragedy of the Titanic. Soon after the second symphony Årstiderna, Berg wrote a symphonic poem bearing the title Selbst ist der Mann! When he fell in love with his second wife Elsie, he composed an additional movement that remained unfinished until 1939, and called it his third symphony with the title Makter. This late revision is the reason Berg’s symphonies are counted differently in contemporary articles.

In 1918 he had a wager with his friend Kurt Atterberg in which they agreed to write a light piece of 20 minutes duration. The result was Berg’s fourth symphony Pezzo sinfonico – regrettably it was two minutes too long. During these years Berg also composed his ballets Älvorna and Sensitiva, although Sensitiva was never performed. He began to write an opera called Josua, but did not complete it. Israels lovsång for choir and orchestra, which was originally included in Josua, was later performed as a separate piece.

‘I am STIM’ (1918−1924)

In 1914 four young and ambitious composers met to initiate a composer’s society, but their initial efforts failed. Four years later Kurt Atterberg, Natanael Berg, Oskar Lindberg and Ture Rangström’s plan finally came to fruition; on 29 November 1918 Föreningen Svenska Tonsättare, FST (the Swedish Society of Composers) was founded in Stockholm. Its aim was to look after the artistic and economic interests of the composers and to promote Swedish music both at home and abroad. Natanael Berg was elected as the first chairman and in the beginning the FST’s offices were housed in Berg’s home. In 1922 he and the academy’s secretary Olallo Morales represented the FST at the international composer conference in Berlin.

The following year Berg travelled to Amsterdam to establish ties with the local copyright collecting society. This resulted in the founding of the Svenska Tonsättares Internationella Musikbyrå, STIM (Swedish Performing Rights Society) in 1923. Here Berg was also appointed as first chairman. On a journey through Europe he negotiated with other societies about a future cooperation. Berg liked to tell the anecdote that when he once was asked about his authority he answered ‘I need no one’s permission – I am STIM.’ Despite, or because of, his great commitment and his hot temper, conflicts emerged both within the boards of FST and STIM which resulted in Berg’s withdrawal as chairman from both institutions. When his demand for compensation for his work was refused, he even resigned from the FST in 1928; he did not return until 1942.

Successes and frustrations (1924−1957)

In 1921 Berg was offered the position as second conductor in Gothenburg by Stenhammar but he refused. Perhaps he was still offended by Traumgewalten. Instead he continued to focus on composing. After five years Berg finished his last symphony Trilogia delle passioni in 1924. This was followed by the cantata Höga visan which is one of his most important works. His opera about the Swedish national hero Engelbrekt (1926–28) bears national romantic traits and here Berg’s melodics refer to Swedish folk tradition. The opera was a great success when it was performed in Braunschweig. The premiere of his next opera Judith took place at the international music festival in 1936 in Stockholm where members of the royal house and the government were present.

Over the following years Berg’s compositions, including his new operas Birgitta and Genoveva, were performed less and less. The decreasing interest in and attention to his music irritated and frustrated the composer. In 1932 Berg was designated as a member of the Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien, KMA (the Royal Swedish Academy of Music) but he attracted great attention when he retracted his membership after attending only one meeting. He explained his withdrawal with his impression that the academy’s board seemed more interested in economic and juridical questions than in musical matters. Several years later he publicly criticized Stockholm’s musical institutions KMA, the Kungliga Teatern and Radiotjänst (the Swedish public radio service) sharply. In the years before his death, Berg worked on an opera about the biblical kings Saul, David and Salomon. However he did not make much progress and Tre konungar remained unfinished. Natanael Berg died on 14 October 1957 at the age of 78 in Stockholm.

Works

Together with Atterberg, Rangström and Lindberg, Natanael Berg belonged to the generation of the 1910s, which was also called the ‘Youngswedes’ (‘ungsvenskarna’). They were all autodidacts as composers with the exception of Lindberg. They were in opposition to earlier Swedish music and aimed for a more modern and national style. But Berg was more cosmopolitan and contrary to his colleagues, and his compositions show practically no influences of Swedish folk music. Instead he was highly influenced by the late German romantics, especially by Richard Strauss. This can be seen in his striking orchestration, the use of dissonant harmonies and Berg’s preference for programmatic titles. His orchestral works tend to be bombastic and emotive and are full of temperament, which is maybe a reflection of the composer’s often impetuous and short-tempered personality. His later style is more withdrawn and refined, of which Trilogia delle passioni (1919−24) and the cantata Höga visan (1924/25) are fine examples. In an article celebrating Berg’s 50^th birthday in 1929 one can read that he ‘[…] spoke the boldest and latest tonal language of all contemporary Swedish composers.’ But the new musical movements which emerged in the following years did not have an impact on Berg’s oeuvre so his music was seen as old-fashioned for that time – a fate which Natanael Berg shared with others of his generation.

Berg composed about 50 piano pieces, most of them were written during his time as a veterinarian in the countryside. They are mostly small character pieces; Berg showed no interest in classical forms like the sonata. Chamber music also did not play an important role in his work. Here Berg’s piano quintet and his string quartet in E minor are to be mentioned. A huge number of his nearly 50 solo songs were composed before 1910 and some of them were orchestrated by Berg subsequently.

His interest in German and Swedish poetry also had an influence on his orchestral music which mainly came from the 1910s. All of Berg’s five symphonies bear programmatic titles and are based on a poem or a motto. Besides his orchestral works, stage music played an important role for Berg. He completed three ballets and five operas for which he also wrote the libretti. Raised in a religious home, Berg was a religious man and he even had a private audience with the pope in 1952. So it is certainly no coincidence that many vocal pieces and operas, like Höga visan, Saul och David, Judith and others are based on the Old Testament. However, it is interesting to note that he did not compose any explicitly sacred works. Today many of Berg’s compositions are still waiting to be recorded, especially his songs and his operas.

Carola Finkel © 2016