|
The Danish cellist, Erling Blöndal Bengtsson, gave his first public performance there in 1936, when he was 4 years old. At the age 16, he was accepted by the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he took up studies with Gregor Piatigorsky. One year later (1949), he became Piatigorsky´s instructing assistant and the following year became a faculty member of the Curtis Institute.
Erling Blöndal Bengtsson regularly performed in Europe, the USA, South America and Russia. He appeared with most of the world´s leading orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Salzburg´s Mazarteum Orchestra, Residentie Orkest Den Haag under the direction of many of leading maestros, such as Yuri Temirkanov, Mariss Jansons, David Zinman, Sixten Ehrling, Herbert Blomstedt, Sergiu Comissiona. His repertoire is all-encompassing and he has championed the works of leading Scandinavian composers, as well as performing the Scandinavian premieres of cello concertos by Benjamin Britten, Samuel Barber, Khatchaturian, Delius, Lutoslawsky and Walton and, indeed, the latter two, themselves, conducted several performances each with Bengtsson as soloist.
Erling Blöndal Bengtsson made most of his phonograph and CD recordings with the Danish label Danacord. A consistent recording artist, with over 50 albums, he has, along with the complete standard repertoire for cello and orchestra, recorded many contemporary concertos, most of which were dedicated to him. In 1985, his recordings of the Six Cello Suites (BWV 1007) of J.S. Bach on the Danacord, was selected as "The choice of the year" by the American recording magazine Fanfare. In 1998 his recording of the Zoltán Kodály Solo Sonata, was chosen by the "Guinness Classical 1000" as being one of the top 1000 recordings of all time.
A world-class performer who also enjoys pedagogy, Erling Blöndal Bengtsson became a role model for a whole family of young cellists in Europe and abroad. During the course of a career spanning five decades, he has been on the faculties of the leading conservatories of Copenhagen, Stockholm and Cologne. From 1950 to 1953, he taught his own cello class at the Curtis Institute of Music, before being appointed to the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. In 1980, he became a professor at the Hochschule für Musik Köln. In 1990, he returned to the USA as a full professor at the School of Music of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In order to concentrate on concertizing and giving master-classes, he stepped down from this position in 2006.
Erling Blöndal Bengtsson was awarded the Knight, first class, of the Order of Dannebrog in Denmark. From Iceland, his mother´s birthplace, he was awarded the Grand Knight of the Order of the Falcon. He was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and has been awarded the English Hyam Morrison Gold Medal for Cello. In 1993 he was honored with the title "Chevalier du Violoncelle" by Indiana University, School of Music, Eva Janzer Memorial Cello Center. He was on the board of Directors of "Symphonicum Europae" New York, 1997. He was honored with an "Award of Distinction" at the International CELLO Festival, RNCM Manchester, 2001; and named "Premier Master Cellist 2005" by the Detroit Cello Society, USA. In November 2006, Danacord released the DVD "The Cello and I", which presented a comprehensive portrait of Bengtsson's career on the seventieth anniversary of his debut. He died in the USA, aged 81.
Erling Blöndal Bengtsson was the subject of a sculpture (The Musician) in 1970 by the Icelandic sculptor Ólöf Pálsdóttir, of him playing the cello. In 2014 this was moved to a location in the water, next to the Iceland Symphony Orchestra's new home of the Harpa in Reykjavík. |
