Erling Blöndal Bengtsson – Cello (1932 – 2013) Not many musicians have a public statue in their memory but Bengtsson’s stands proudly outside Reykjavík’s iconic new ‘Harpa’ concert hall, an indication of the esteem in which he is held there. Erling Blöndal Bengtsson’s distinguished career started at four years of age with his first public performance in Copenhagen where he was born. At the age of sixteen he was accepted into the Curtis Institute after writing to Piatigorsky, who invited him to the USA to perform with the Tanglewood orchestra. He later became Piatigorsky’s teaching assistant, and from 1950 to 1953 taught his own cello class at Curtis. In a performing career that spanned the globe, Erling performed from memory a concert repertoire that encompassed the entire cello literature. He also commissioned and introduced many new works, including fourteen cello concertos by Scandinavian composers. His ‘burnished, vibrant tone and facilitating technique’ resulted in numerous distinguished recordings, among them the complete Beethoven sonatas and Bach cello suites. He taught at the Royal Danish Academy of Music for thirty-seven years as well as at the Swedish Radio Music School, Cologne’s Hochschule für Musik and the University of Michigan School of Music. He appeared with most of the world’s leading orchestras and many of the world’s leading conductors. He visited the UK many times playing concertos with maestros such as Paavo Berglund, Charles Groves and Malcolm Sargent and notably gave a performance of the Walton concerto with the composer conducting. In his later years he gave masterclasses in Norway and Iceland, where he was a celebrated soloist. He was awarded many honours in his lifetime, among them the Knight First Class of the Order of Dannebrog in Denmark and, from Iceland, 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 honoured with the title Chevalier du Violoncelle by Indiana University, School of Music. In 2001 he received an Award of Distinction at the International Cello Festival, RNCM Manchester, named Premier Master Cellist 2005 by the Detroit Cello Society, USA and in 2013 honoured with the prestigious Jón Sigurdsson Award by the Icelandic government.
