In memoriam: Niels Viggo Bentzon

Musical Times, Summer 2000

A Danish composer whose catalogue contains almost 700 works, Niels Viggo Bentzon was a dynamic creative artist of prodigal talents. From an early age he was fluent at the keyboard, playing both piano and organ, as might be expected from the scion of a remarkably musical family, the Hartmans, which could trace back its ancestry for two centuries. But as a poet, painter, novelist and essayist he also received considerable acclaim.

Although sensitive to the legacy of Carl Nielsen, Bentzon early in his career embraced the spirit of the neo-classical 1930s, along with an abiding interest in jazz, a concern with chamber music, and Hindemith and Bartok as strongly formative influences on his work. After studying at the Royal Danish Conservatoire from 1938 to 1942, he made his debut in 1943, and gained recognition on a wider scale in 1949 by performing his piano Partita, op.38, at the 1947 festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music, held in Copenhagen.

Already composing prodigiously, he went on to begin his Fourth Symphony, 'Metamorphosen', op.55, the following year, and in 1949 was appointed to the staff of the Copenhagen Conservatoire. From then on, though the centre of his musical interests shifted from the characteristic metamorphosis technique of his fellow Swede Vagn Holmboe to a catholic engagement with aspects of modernism that ranged from serialism to ensemble improvisation (Third stream music op.179) and to happenings (Bijouterie op.197), he continued writing with such diligence that the final tally of his works includes twenty-four symphonies, eight piano concertos and nearly twenty for other instruments, two ballets, and three operas. There is also the legacy of an enormous quantity of piano music, including twoand three-part inventions and thirteen volumes (each containing twenty-four preludes and fugues) of The tempered piano.

Such prolixity brackets him with a composer like Telemann or Milhaud, honoured as much for sheer quantity of the output as a whole as from respect for the genuine article of individual works. Yet Bentzon undoubtedly possessed his own individual voice, most notably as a polyphonist; and when, in due process of time, a more balanced perspective emerges on his output, this may well be remembered as his most significant achievement.

Niels Viggo Bentzon: born Copenhagen, 24 August 1919; died Copenhagen, 25 April 2000.