Norbert Burgmüller (1810-1836)
- Zweite Sinfonie (D-Dur), Op.11 (c.1835)
(Scherzo finished by Robert Schumann)
Performers: Concerto Köln; David Stern (conductor)
Painting: Gustave Wappers (1803-1874) - Der Abschied nach Amerika oder die Einschiffung auf der Mayflower
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German composer and pianist. Son Johann August Franz Burgmüller
(1766-1824) and brother of Friedrich Burgmüller (1806-1874), he was a
child prodigy who began composing at an early age. He received training
from his father, and in Kassel with Ludwig Spohr and Moritz Hauptmann.
During these years he made frequent appearances as a pianist and
composer. In 1831 he came back to Düsseldorf hoping to obtain,
unsuccessfully, a permanent appointment there. He was suffering very
frequent epileptic fits at this time, and his decline in social status
began, remaining in contact with only a few close friends including the
poet Christian Dietrich Grabbe. As a composer, he wrote two symphonies,
(the second one unfinished), a Piano concerto, chamber music, piano
pieces and songs. Burgmüller's compositions attracted an increasing
amount of attention, and won the approval of Felix Mendelssohn, who
performed his first symphony. But his social situation remained
insecure, and he was considering moving to Paris when he died of an
epileptic fit while staying at Aachen. In an impassioned obituary,
Robert Schumann wrote: ‘Since the early death of Franz Schubert, nothing
more deplorable has happened than that of Burgmüller’, and a funeral
march composed by Mendelssohn himself accompanied him to the grave.
