Newspaper Article

Obituary: Niels Viggo Bentzon: Mercurial Danish composer of more than 1,000 works

Rickards, Guy

2000

Overview

Niels Viggo Bentzon, who has died aged 80, was a prodigiously gifted poet, painter, pianist, critic and teacher and the composer of over 1,000 musical works. Bentzon was the youngest and most mercurial member of the triumvirate of composers (with Vagn Holmboe and Herman D Koppel) that dominated Danish music in the two decades following the second world war. Bentzon composed music in every known classical form, including four operas (one left unfinished in 1970), 24 symphonies, a Sinfonia da camera and a large number of other orchestral works, including the magnificent Symphonic Variations (1953). He wrote over two dozen concertos, including eight for his own instrument, the piano, five for violin, three for cello, and others for standard orchestral instruments, even accordion ensemble. Bentzon was born into a highly cultured and musical family in Copenhagen, and one of his cousins was the noted composer Jorgen Bentzon. In 1938, after studies in jazz piano with Leo Mathiesen, Bentzon entered the Copenhagen conservatory studying piano and organ, graduating in 1942 with the conservatory's highest marks. From 1945- 49 he taught piano and theory at the Aarhus conservatory, and from 1950 taught composition at the Copenhagen conservatory.

• Publisher: Guardian News & Media Limited
• Subject: Bentzon, Niels Viggo / Composers / Deaths / Musicians & conductors