Bendix Symphony No. 2 "Summer Sounds from Southern Russia"

[Alan Howe]

Thanks to Ilja, we have an opportunity to hear this in a decent modern performance.

The download is available here: https://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,9529.msg97537.html#msg97537

[Maury]

Thanks for the notice. More well played Bendix is welcome.

[Maury]

Playing this file the sound is tonally unbalanced in unpleasant ways. I have pretty good computer audio playback systems. Is this the way the soundfile actually sounds or is something going wrong with my playback of this file?

[Maury]

Leaving aside the sonics of the soundfile, this Symphony 2 by Bendix must have been somewhat disconcerting in the context of the late 1880s symphony audience. It doesn't sound like Gade his teacher's symphonies. I have seen a few references in reviews of the Omsk recording to a similarity with melodies by Glazunov. However in 1888 Glazunov had only had his first two symphonies performed in Russia so I doubt he was much of an influence. In addition Glazunov's music is always well structured and not as wayward as the Bendix symphony. About the only connection I perceive there is a lack of obvious struggle or persistent tension in the music. As for Dvorak, the Bendix Sym  has little of the peasant earthiness or emotional immediacy of his music.

To my ears it already has a certain 20th C quirkiness in its quiet non-expressionist way. Are there any symphonies around this time which have a similar aspect or is this the earliest?

[eschiss1]

That's not uniformly true of Dvorak's music either, especially the earlier works. Anyhow, good question.

[Ilja]

Louis Glass' First Symphony (in E major from 1894) springs to mind, which is also rather free in a formal sense. Like Bendix (and Carl Nielsen) he was a student of Gade, who appears to have instilled a sense of musical adventure in his students.

[Maury]

Thanks for this helpful info Ilja positing a specific source of Gade's relaxed mentoring for this rather enigmatic style that I am still trying to understand better. Yes most 19th C composition teachers were quite directive and rigid which produced the usual rebellions. So Gade must have been an outlier. Carl Nielsen would be a better known example too as you note. I will take a serious listen to the Glass Sym. But since the Glass is from 1894 the Bendix Sym 2 in 1888 is still the earliest example so far noted. 

The remaining unanswered question is how or why certain Swiss composers like Brun and Hermann appeared to follow along, at least in some works. Although since they were born later it is possible that they had heard selected works of these composers.

Update: Yes spot on!! great example with the Glass Sym 1 which is definitely in that wayward style of restrained romanticism . Thanks so much as I would have been agonizing over this puzzle for months or years trying to find out its proximate genesis. This may also provide an indirect path to the Sibelius Sym 3 and 6 which have always been hard to pin down in a stylistic progression. I have read a number of books on Sibelius and none provided a coherent explanation of why or where Sibelius got the idea for this surprising stylistic deviation of the Sym 3 in the early 1900s.

[Alan Howe]

Mention has been made of influences upon Bendix from other composers, e.g. Liszt. Naxos' website has this paragraph:

Victor Bendix was highly respected as a composer, pianist and conductor. He had one foot in the Danish Romantic tradition (he was a pupil of Gade and J.P.E. Hartmann), but also took an interest in the Late Romantic movement abroad. He studied with Liszt, whose ideas one can hear in Bendix' Piano Concerto, the most virtuoso concerto of Danish Romanticism. Bendix wrote four symphonies with an international orientation and they are among the best from the period between Gade and Carl Nielsen. Carl Nielsen in fact had great respect for Bendix, and dedicated his great Symphonic Suite for piano to him.
https://www.naxos.com/Bio/Person/Victor_Bendix/25981

[Maury]

I am aware of the Liszt connection to Bendix but I hear that more in Bendix' piano works than the symphonies. The dedication of Nielsen's Suite to Bendix is very interesting. Bendix is looking like a much more seminal figure than I at least suspected. His first symphony seems more in the normative high Romantic style although with personal touches. The Sym 2 though goes off on a stylistically original Romantic tangent that he continued on symphonically and that seemed to influence others into the 20th C.

Looking on bookfinder I couldn't find any biography of Bendix in any language. Are there any known articles or research papers about him? Are there any concert reviews of his symphonies still extant?

Thanks very much to both of you for shedding some initial light on this mystery.

[eschiss1]

There is at least one dissertation I find which while not uniquely about Bendix mentions him in the title:
Leiska, Katharine (2012). "Skandinavische Musik in Deutschland um 1900 : Symphonien von Christian Sinding, Victor Bendix und Carl Nielsen zwischen Gattungstradition und Nord-Imagines"

Further searching found this book, though:
Cornelius, Jens (2021). "Victor Bendix, 1851-1926". OCLC 1445899469. "Victor Bendix (1851-1926) was a celebrity in Danish music around the year 1900. His skills as a composer, pianist and conductor set new standards in Denmark, and his symphonies were performed even by the Berlin Philharmonic. Yet he was regarded with some suspicion. Bendix was Jewish, a freethinker and a Wagner admirer, and thus a contradiction to the leading Danish circles. In addition, his private life was publicly known and was considered scandalous, not least when a mistress tried to murder him. Bendix was a student of Niels W. Gade and of Liszt, and he himself became a mentor to Carl Nielsen. This biography paints a portrait of a charismatic artist who found himself in the eye of the hurricane at a crucial time in musical history." (translation by Google Chrome)

[Maury]

Yes eschiss regarding the first one  I saw that but wasn't sure about the scope and focus of the work.

The second one had a confused listing on bookfinder seeming to suggest that a Victor Bendix wrote something about Jens Cornelius. Thanks for clarifying. This might be a useful source  but I know nothing about Jens Cornelius. He seems to have written a book about Ludolf Nielsen. too

[eschiss1]

Try the Jens Cornelius book instead if you can find it...137 pp. just about Bendix.

[Maury]

 

His skills as a composer, pianist and conductor set new standards in Denmark, and his symphonies were performed even by the Berlin Philharmonic.

That is a useful quote since it indicates Central European exposure at the highest level to his symphonies. Since the date of 1900 is given Bendix had written 3 of his 4 symphonies by then. So it is entirely possible for Swiss composers to have been exposed to them and / or read the scores. It also suggests that Sibelius may well have heard one or more prior to his Sym 3..

Thanks everybody for the sleuthing. Things are beginning to fall in place.

[Wheesht]

but I know nothing about Jens Cornelius. He seems to have written a book about Ludolf Nielsen. too

I had never heard the name Jens Cornelius before either, but his website shows that he is a long-established Danish musicologist and author of several books. I look forward to delving into what promises to be a lot of interesting material.

[Maury]

Wheesht,
 
   Thanks for the Jens Cornelius website link. I note for the record it is not https compliant. Also he describes himself as a Musikjournalist. My Danish is very poor but that does seem like he works as a music critic/writer  of some kind rather than a musicologist although he has a degree. I don't see an academic affiliation either and he indicates he is freelance. He has written for various organizations and record labels and is working I think at Danish radio so I assume he is well known at least in certain Danish music circles. I would also note that the Bendix biography is only 137 pages long which doesn't indicate some intensive description of his works. That is not to say there is no possible useful info in it but it's not going to be a normal academic music biography either. I guess my concern would be that given Bendix' very raffish lifestyle that there would be many pages devoted to that rather than music analysis.