Michael Jamieson Bristow 
(OLOF) WILHELM PETERSON-BERGER (1867-1942)
Born: Ullånger (Sweden), February 27 1867 - Died: Östersund (Sweden), December 03 1942
(OLOF) WILHELM PETERSON-BERGER was born in 1867 in Ullånger on the Ångermanland coast in northern Sweden and spent his childhood years up until he left school north of there on the Västerbotten coast. He inherited his musicality from his mother, his first musical experience coming as a seven-year old, when he listened enraptured to his mother playing beethoven's Moonlight Sonata one evening. Thus was born his passion for sitting at the piano, improvising and composing.
Later it would be another part of northern Sweden that he was especially drawn to: Jämtland, with its mountains bordering Norway to the west. It was there, from the house in the rustic manner he had built on the island of Frösön, that he claimed to have the world's most beautiful view, looking out over the waters of the lake Storsjön. Completed in 1914, he called his little bit of paradise Sommarhagen (Summer Refuge) and in 1930 it became his permanent home. The countryside of northern Sweden remained his most important source of inspiration. He made the first, decisive, visit to Jämtland in the late summer of 1889.
In the following years he spent several weeks each summer hiking in the mountains with other young outdoor-enthusiastic friends, always carrying a notebook and some manuscript paper with him. He rehearsed several of his newly composed songs with these friends, thus giving their first performances in the mountain sunshine under an open sky.
In autumn 1895 Peterson-Berger moved to Stockholm and was employed on the leading Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter. Through his honest but often biting music reviews he became one of the most read journalists on Dagens Nyheter, arousing however much hostility and jealousy in the process. This in turn led to difficulties for him as a composer.
Peterson-Berger died in Östersund Hospital on December 03 1942. From the window next to his sickbed he could look out over the sound to the far shore and see Frösön,
MAJOR WORKS
Sonata No.1 for violin and piano in E minor, Opus 1 (1887)
Symphony No.1 in B major 'Baneret' (1889-1890, 1903) (first performed: February 23 1904)
Majkarneval i Stockholm, concert overture (1892-1893) (first performed: March 13 1902)
Suite for violin and piano, Op.15 (1896)
Frösöblomster I, eight pieces for piano, Opus 16 (1896)
Sveagaldrar, song drama for King Oscar II's 25 year reign (1897) (first performed: September 21 1897)
Ran, opera in three acts (1899-1900) (first performed: May 20 1903)
Frösöblomster II, six pieces for piano (1900)
Lyckan, saga drama in one act (1903) (first performed: March 27 1903)
I somras, suite for piano (and orchestra) (1903) (first orchestral performance: November 18 1923)
Arnljot, opera in three acts (1907-1909) (first performed: April 13 1910)
Sonata No.2 for violin and piano in G major (1910)
Symphony No.2 in E-flat major 'Sunnanfärd' (1910) (first performed: March 22 1911)
Domedagsprofeterna, music drama in three acts (1912-1917) (first performed: February 21 1919)
Symphony No.3 in F minor 'Same-Ätnam' (1913-1915) (first performed: December 11 1917)
Frösöblomster III, seven pieces for piano (1914)
Romance in D minor for violin and orchestra (1915) (first peformed: April 13 1916)
Earina, suite for piano (and orchestra) (1917) (first orchestral performance: March 14 1918)
Norrbotten, cantata for the 300th Anniversary of Luleå (1921) (first performed: July 09 1921)
Adils och Elisiv, saga drama in three acts (1921-1924) (first performed: February 27 1927)
Cantata for the 300th Anniversary of Umeå (1922) (first performed: June 23 1922)
Cantata for the 150th Anniversary of the Kings Theatre in Stockholm (1922) (first performed: January 18 1923)
Italiana, suite for piano (and orchestra) (1922) (first orchestral performance: November 18 1923)
Concerto for violin and orchestra in F-sharp minor (1928) (first performed: February 06 1929)
Soluppgång, cantata for the 250th Anniversary of Frösö School (1929) (first performed: August 31 1929)
Symphony No.4 in A major 'Holmia' (1929) (first performed: April 09 1930)
Symphony No.5 in B minor 'Solitudo' (1932-1933) (first performed: April 11 1934)
Symphony No.6 'Hellas' (1935) - sketched - unfinished