Joachim Eggert's birthday!

[Hofrat]

On 22 February 1779, the Swedish composer Joachim Eggert was born. At the turn of the 19th century, he was the foremost symphonist in Sweden. He has the distinction of composing and performing a symphony that included a full trombone section 18 months before Beethoven's 5th symphony.

I have been informed that the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (Eggert's orchestra!) is planning a concert to commemorate the introduction of the trombone into the symphonic orchestra for the autumn of 2007. The program will include:

Eggert's Eb symphony
Beethoven's C-minor symphony
Berwald's piano concerto

[Rutradelusasa]

I was yesterday (coincidence) googling all I could in search of some of his music, but I couldn't find anything. Do you know if anyone recorded any or plans to?

[Hofrat]

Well, very little of Eggert has been recorded or performed. The chief problem is the lack of printed scores and parts. For 6 years, I have been trying to rectify that, but it has been an up-hill battle all the way.

Two of Eggert's symphonies were recorded on LP's. One of his string quartets has been recorded on CD. Sterling Recordings has made contact with me and my co-editors about recording Eggert's symphonies, but no agreement has been reached.

We are close to publishing an Eggert symphony score. Hopefully, that score will be joined with an other as we approach concert time this autumn. The Swedish Academy of Music expressed the desire to publish all of Eggert's string quartets, but money has not been budgeted to the project.

[Rutradelusasa]

Wow, so you're publishing his music! Maybe you should get in touch with CPO, they have a thing for unknown composers, like their releases of Kalliwoda, Raff, M. Haydn, Ries and others. They've gone for completion with a lot of these composers and Mr. Spering told me they wanted to complete a Kalliwoda cycle.

[Hofrat]

Yes, we are doing our best to get Eggert published and performed. Rosewood Publications in England has recently published Eggert's Sextet for clarinet, horn, and strings (I am quoted in the forward and I helped them with the original Eggert manuscript). An ensemble in Gothenberg was slotted to perform the Eggert String Sextet, but that has temporarily been put on hold. And yet another ensemble there is interested in performing Eggert's piano quartet. And I have a friend in Colombia, South America who has put together 75% of a string quartet and when he gets the last 25% he will perform an Eggert string quartet.

Thanks for the idea of contacting CPO!!

[susanwen]

I couldn't find anything at my library site or at Naxos. Now I'm getting interested . . .

[Hofrat]

Dear Susan;

I, too, am surprised that Naxos has not recorded anything by Eggert. I have been in contact with Artaria NZ, which is in partnership with Naxos, about Eggert and I have supplied material to them. Artaria is most enthusiastic about Eggert but seems to put Eggert on the "back burners." As I pointed out, the big problem with Eggert is the lack of printed scores and parts, which I have been fighting "tooth and nail" for over six years.

My articles on Eggert appear on various websites on the Internet. Just write "Joachim Eggert" in your favorite search engine and press enter.