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Norbert BurgmullerGerman composer and pianist
Date of Birth: 08.02.1810
Country:  Germany |
Content:
Biography of Norbert Burgmüller
German Composer and PianistNorbert Burgmüller was a German composer and pianist, and the brother of Friedrich Burgmüller. He was born into a family of musicians, as his father was the composer and conductor August Franz Burgmüller, who gave him his first music lessons. After his father's death in 1824, Norbert was taken under the patronage of Count Franz von Nesselrode-Ereshoven, who settled him in his estate near Kassel. With the financial support of the count, Burgmüller received a good musical education, studying under the guidance of Moritz Hauptmann and Louis Spohr.
Early Career and Struggles
In the late 1820s, Burgmüller frequently performed as a pianist and made his debut as a composer in January 1830, performing his own Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. The following year, he returned to Düsseldorf in hopes of finding teaching work, but was unsuccessful. He began to show signs of epilepsy and led a reclusive life, only socializing with his closest friends, including the poet H.D. Grabe.
Recognition and Tragic End
In 1834, Burgmüller met Mendelssohn, who praised his music and performed his Symphony in C minor and Piano Concerto in his own concerts. After Mendelssohn's departure, Burgmüller's financial and social situation remained unstable, and he harbored plans to move to Paris, where his brother was already living and working. However, these plans were never realized. In 1836, while on a resort in Aachen, Burgmüller drowned during another epileptic seizure.
Burgmüller's untimely death was mourned by Robert Schumann, who wrote an obituary in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, stating that it was the greatest loss to music since Schubert's death. Mendelssohn composed a funeral march, Op. 103, in memory of Burgmüller, which was played during his funeral.
Legacy
Burgmüller's short creative career did not allow his talent to fully flourish. Nevertheless, his music clearly demonstrates the development of an individual style. His earliest compositions, such as his String Quartets, Op. 4 and Op. 7, are romantic in spirit and show the influence of Spohr. His later songs exhibit clarity of expression more characteristic of classicism. His first piano concerto, written in the rare key of F-sharp minor for solo concertos at that time, showcases expansive form and unconventional orchestration, such as assigning an extensive solo part to the cello, essentially elevating it to the level of a second soloist.
Of the two symphonies Burgmüller composed, only the first was completed, while the second remains unfinished, with the author having written only 58 bars of the final movement. Schumann had planned to complete this symphony during his time in Düsseldorf, but never fulfilled his intentions.
Soon after Burgmüller's death, his compositions were largely forgotten. Most of them were only published for the first time in the second half of the 19th century, and the true revival of his music began in 1986, commemorating the 150th anniversary of his passing.
