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Forgotten Masterpiece Friday: Carl Helsted, Symphony No. 1
It's Forgotten Masterpiece Friday!
Carl Helsted (1818-1904) had an inexplicably short career as a composer, completing his last work at 33 and living another half-century without composing a single piece of music. The son of a military bandsman, he began his musical career as a flautist in military bands himself. But his passion seems to have been for opera, as he left the army band after three years, traveled to Paris to study singing, and worked mainly as a singer and voice teacher after he returned to Denmark. Helsted's composing career started promisingly: when he was still a student, his Concert Overture in D minor was runner-up in a prestigious competition and created a sensation at its Copenhagen premiere. Although several more pieces were similarly successful, Helsted abruptly stopped composing without explanation in 1851. Perhaps he felt he was being overshadowed by Niels Gade, one year his senior, who had recently returned to Denmark from a stint as music director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus. But it also seems likely that Helsted had simply become too busy to compose between his increasing number of students and his own performing engagements. He was one of the most sought-after singing teachers of his time, and as a singer he remained an active performer well into his eighties.
The years after Helsted returned from Paris were his most prolific. His First Symphony is a product of this period, composed in 1842. Like his contemporary Schumann, Helsted forms somewhat of a link between the nascent Romanticism of Beethoven and Schubert and the mature Romanticism of Brahms -- but unlike Schumann, who was responsible for unearthing Schubert's Ninth and later knew Brahms personally, Helsted worked in what was then a musical backwater. This symphony's resemblance to Schumann's later orchestral music is especially striking because Schumann only began to compose for orchestra in 1841.
Carl Helsted (1818-1904) had an inexplicably short career as a composer, completing his last work at 33 and living another half-century without composing a single piece of music. The son of a military bandsman, he began his musical career as a flautist in military bands himself. But his passion seems to have been for opera, as he left the army band after three years, traveled to Paris to study singing, and worked mainly as a singer and voice teacher after he returned to Denmark. Helsted's composing career started promisingly: when he was still a student, his Concert Overture in D minor was runner-up in a prestigious competition and created a sensation at its Copenhagen premiere. Although several more pieces were similarly successful, Helsted abruptly stopped composing without explanation in 1851. Perhaps he felt he was being overshadowed by Niels Gade, one year his senior, who had recently returned to Denmark from a stint as music director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus. But it also seems likely that Helsted had simply become too busy to compose between his increasing number of students and his own performing engagements. He was one of the most sought-after singing teachers of his time, and as a singer he remained an active performer well into his eighties.
The years after Helsted returned from Paris were his most prolific. His First Symphony is a product of this period, composed in 1842. Like his contemporary Schumann, Helsted forms somewhat of a link between the nascent Romanticism of Beethoven and Schubert and the mature Romanticism of Brahms -- but unlike Schumann, who was responsible for unearthing Schubert's Ninth and later knew Brahms personally, Helsted worked in what was then a musical backwater. This symphony's resemblance to Schumann's later orchestral music is especially striking because Schumann only began to compose for orchestra in 1841.