Wilhelm Stenhammar

Carl Wilhelm Eugen Stenhammar was born on February 7, 1871, in Stockholm, the son of architect Per Ulrik Stenhammar. After studying piano and composition in Stockholm and Berlin, he became one of Scandinavia's finest concert pianists and chamber musicians, collaborating closely with the Aulin String Quartet.

As chief conductor of the newly founded Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (1906–1922), Stenhammar forged an ensemble of international renown and championed the works of his close friends Jean Sibelius and Carl Nielsen. Discarding early Wagnerian influences to study J.S. Bach's counterpoint, he produced masterworks of luminous Nordic clarity: his Serenade in F major (1913), the modal Symphony No. 2 in G minor, and six exquisite string quartets that form the summit of Swedish chamber music.