Fridtjof Backer Gröndahl portrait cropped

Fridtjof Backer-Grøndahl (15 October 188521 June 1959) was a Norwegian pianist, composer and music teacher.

Biography

Backer-Grøndahl was born in Christiania (later

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

) in 1885, the son of the conductor and singing teacher

Olaus Andreas Grøndahl Olaus Andreas Grøndahl (4 November 1847 — 31 December 1923) was a Norwegian conductor, singing teacher and composer. The music journalist Cecilie Dahm described him as "... a central figure in Norway's choral movement". His best known work wa ...

and the pianist and composer Agathe Backer Grøndahl. His first studies were with his mother, under whom he made his concert debut at the age of 18. He then went to the Berlin High School for Music where his teacher was Ernst Rudorff. He also had private lessons with

Ernst von Dohnányi Ernst von Dohnányi (Hungarian: ''Dohnányi Ernő'', ; 27 July 1877 – 9 February 1960) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and conductor. He used a German form of his name on most published compositions. Biography Dohnányi was born in Pozsony ...

and Xaver Scharwenka. He made a special study of the Piano Concerto in A minor by his countryman (and his mother's friend)

Edvard Grieg Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the foremost Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of ...

. He toured in Germany and neighbouring countries from 1905. In 1906 (

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

) and 1907 (

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland pe ...

) he played Grieg's Concerto under the baton of the composer. He also played the concerto under Johan Svendsen.''Backer-Grøndahl, Fridtjof'', Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed., 1954, Vol. I, p. 341 From 1920 to 1930 Fridtjof Backer-Grøndahl lived in Britain, where he taught at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

and also concertized, including works by his mother, Grieg, and other Norwegian music in his repertoire, along with those of

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

, Chopin,

Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...

and

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...

. He wrote some piano pieces and song cycles. He made a small number of recordings of Grieg's ''

Lyric Pieces ''Lyric Pieces'' ( no, Lyriske stykker) is a collection of 66 short pieces for solo piano written by Edvard Grieg. They were published in 10 volumes, from 1867 ( Op. 12) to 1901 (Op. 71). The collection includes several of his best known pieces, ...

'', available on YouTube. Also he made recordings of his mother Agathe Backer Grøndahl's piano pieces (2 X 10inch 4ss). Fridtjof Backer-Grøndahl died in Oslo in 1959, aged 73.

References

External links

Fridtjof Backer-Grøndahl
Norsk biografisk leksikon {{DEFAULTSORT:Backer-Grondahl, Fridtjof 1885 births 1959 deaths Norwegian classical composers Norwegian classical pianists Norwegian music educators Piano pedagogues Norwegian male classical composers Norwegian male pianists 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century Norwegian male musicians