‘Norwegian music is to be found in the mountains, ready for the taking’, Ole Bull is reputed to have said to Halfdan Kjerulf in the autumn of 1848. He was inspired by the revolution in Paris in February of that year to promote Norwegian folk music.
The concert in tribute of Ole Bull starts with the tune I ensomme stunde (In Moments of Solitude). The piece was originally titled Klage (Lament), and is one of the folk tunes Ole Bull himself transcribed. It was not until he had passed fifty that he included it in his repertoire and dedicated it to the national bard Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, his faithful friend. However he had many years earlier promoted the fiddle playing of Myllarguten, comparing it favourably with European art music. Ole Bull inspired Norwegian musicians to think Norwegian and to compose Norwegian music. He was an example and a source of inspiration to Edvard Grieg, who did all he could long after Bull’s death to ensure that the name Ole Bull would be honoured in posterity.
The only time that Ole Bull and Edvard Grieg performed together in public was at a concert in 1873 in aid of the restoration of Håkonshallen. They played the gavotte which Grieg also used as the introduction to the second act of Sigurd Jorsalfar (The Matching Game, March). Ole Bull also performed one of Grieg’s Violin Sonatas at concerts in America. Grieg’s Sonata in G major fulfilled all of Bull’s aspirations for national Norwegian music.
In this concert, Grieg is followed by Mozart, Ole Bull’s favourite composer. He was good friends with Mozart’s widow, and enjoyed playing Mozart quartets privately and at chamber music soirees.
Ole Bull composed a large proportion of Cantabile doloroso e Rondo giocoso at the mansion Carreglwyd on the isle of Anglesey off the north Welsh coast in 1836. The piece is constructed in much the same way as his other violin fantasias: first a slow introduction demonstrating his melodic skill and ability to draw forth tears from his audience, followed by a rondo crammed with exuberance and virtuosity.
Before the interval we are also treated to the world premiere of Nils Henrik Asheim’s Concerto Grosso, a work commissioned by Musica Dextra. The composer ascribes the inspiration for the work to two sources: on the one hand Ole Bull the instrument builder and his unique collection of old stringed instruments, and on the other the concerto grosso form itself. ‘I fantasised about the incredibly rich sound that would emanate, and about the Italian craftsman with a few pieces of wood in his hands a couple of centuries ago. It made me want to gradually awaken the sound, to let it build up from more or less nothing’, says Asheim. In concerto grosso the soloists alternate – individually and together – in ‘competition’ with the full orchestra. ‘By using this form I seek to release contrasts, nuances and personalities in the ensemble.'
After the interval we find ourselves transported to Leipzig in the autumn of 1840. Ole Bull has recently given a series of concerts throughout the numerous great and small German duchies, and has decided to use Leipzig as his base for concerts in this part of the country. His wife Félicie has arrived from Paris with their one-year-old son Alexander.
In Leipzig Ole and Félicie Bull become good friends of two young couples: the Mendelssohns – Cecile and Felix – and the Schumanns – Clara and Robert. They all meet weekly at the Mendelssohn home, and Felix accompanies him at one of his concerts in the city. ‘While he merely plays the most difficult passages with the greatest ease, he nevertheless finds resonance in the deepest heartstrings. Since Paganini died he is doubtless the greatest virtuoso’, wrote Schumann after one of Bull’s concerts.
We know that Schumann’s writing for piano was affected by the virtuoso performances of Paganini and Bull. Ole Bull showcased his unique technique, remarkable at the time, in the fantasia Polacca Guerriera. He composed it in Italy in 1834, deeply moved by his encounters with Polish refugees and the violent eruption of Vesuvius, but his melodic talent is evident, as the famous violinist Joseph Joachim appreciated: 'He should never have done anything in his life but play tunes. No one can play a tune like him.’
Ole Bull was already playing Paganini’s caprices as a youth when he aimed to impress his violin teachers in Bergen. When he arrived in Paris in 1831 he bought Paganini’s violin tutor, which also contained Introduzione e variazioni sul tema Nel cor piu non mi sento. He performed it in 1833 at his first concert at La Scala in Milan, knowing that it would result in his being compared with Paganini. Later he performed it frequently worldwide. In 1873, when he played the piece in Florence, the musicians in the orchestra exclaimed, ‘He’s here again!’ meaning not Ole Bull but Paganini, who had previously appeared as a soloist with the orchestra.
Ole Bull was an undisputed master in improvisation over given themes. On this matter there was no dissent among his critics – all agree that he was unparallelled. After his death in 1880 Bjørnson occasionally thought of all the music Bull had improvised but never written down through the years: ‘Here he lived the richest.’
Text: Harald Herresthal