Kim Borg
Encyclopedia
Kim Borg was a Finnish
bass, teacher and composer. He had wide-ranging, resonant, warm voice.
. He studied voice with Heikki Teittinen at the Sibelius Academy
(1936-1941 and 1945-1947), where he also received training in theory and composition with Leo Funtek
and Aarre Merikanto
, and then pursued vocal studies with Andrejewa de Skilondz in Stockholm (1950-1959). He also studied biochemistry
at the Helsinki University of Technology
, receiving a diploma
in 1946.
In 1947 he made his formal concert debut in Helsinki, and in 1951 his formal operatic debut in Århus as Colline in La bohème
. In addition to his concert appearances, he sang regularly in opera in Helsinki and Copenhagen (1952-1970), Stockholm (1963-1975), and Hamburg (1964-1970). In October 1959 he made his Metropolitan Opera
debut in New York as Count Almaviva, remaining on its roster until 1962. In 1961 he appeared as Boris Godunov
in Moscow.
He also had success in such roles as Osmin
, Don Giovanni
, King Mark
, Hans Sachs
, King Phillip II
, Pimen
, Gremin
, Don Basilio
and Arkel
.
Recordings of him are available as Abner in Saul og David
by Carl Nielsen
, Shigolch in Lulu
, and both Sarastro, the Sprecher and the Second Armed Man in The Magic Flute
; also doing bass solos in Mozart
's Requiem
, Beethoven
's Missa Solemnis
, Verdi
's Requiem
, Elgar
's The Dream of Gerontius
, Rossini's Stabat Mater
, and Haydn
's The Creation. He also left a fine recording of Mussorsky
's Songs and Dances of Death
.
He retired from stage in 1980. From 1972 to 1989 he was a professor at the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen. He published several books, wrote orchestral compositions (Trombone Concerto, two symphonies), chamber music, a Stabat Mater, and songs. He also prepared orchestrations to compositions of Mussorgsky and Hugo Wolf
.
He died in Humlebæk, Denmark in April 2000, aged 80.
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
bass, teacher and composer. He had wide-ranging, resonant, warm voice.
Biography
Kim Borg was born in HelsinkiHelsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
. He studied voice with Heikki Teittinen at the Sibelius Academy
Sibelius Academy
The Sibelius Academy is a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It also has an adult education centre in Järvenpää and a training centre in Seinäjoki. The Academy is the only music university in Finland. It is among the biggest European music universities...
(1936-1941 and 1945-1947), where he also received training in theory and composition with Leo Funtek
Leo Funtek
Leo Funtek was a violinist, conductor and arranger. He is best known for work as a music professor and for his 1922 arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky's piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition....
and Aarre Merikanto
Aarre Merikanto
Aarre Merikanto was a Finnish composer.He was the son of Liisa Häyrynen and the famous romantic composer, professor Oskar Merikanto. His childhood he spent in Vilppula, Finland. From year 1919, he was married to Meri Grönmark...
, and then pursued vocal studies with Andrejewa de Skilondz in Stockholm (1950-1959). He also studied biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
at the Helsinki University of Technology
Helsinki University of Technology
Aalto University School of Science and Technology , was the temporary name for Helsinki University of Technology during the process of forming the Aalto University...
, receiving a diploma
Diplomi-insinööri
Diplomi-insinööri is a Finnish Master's level academic degree with a nominal length of 300 ECTS credits. The official English translation of the degree is Master of Science in Engineering, Master of Science and Master of Science in Technology. The Finnish name derives from the old German degree...
in 1946.
In 1947 he made his formal concert debut in Helsinki, and in 1951 his formal operatic debut in Århus as Colline in La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
. In addition to his concert appearances, he sang regularly in opera in Helsinki and Copenhagen (1952-1970), Stockholm (1963-1975), and Hamburg (1964-1970). In October 1959 he made his Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
debut in New York as Count Almaviva, remaining on its roster until 1962. In 1961 he appeared as Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
in Moscow.
He also had success in such roles as Osmin
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner with adaptations by Gottlieb Stephanie...
, Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, King Mark
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
, Hans Sachs
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is among the longest operas still commonly performed today, usually taking around four and a half hours. It was first performed at the Königliches Hof- und National-Theater in Munich, on June 21,...
, King Phillip II
Don Carlos
Don Carlos is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French language libretto by Camille du Locle and Joseph Méry, based on the dramatic play Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien by Friedrich Schiller...
, Pimen
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
, Gremin
The Queen of Spades (opera)
The Queen of Spades, Op. 68 is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The premiere took place in 1890 in St...
, Don Basilio
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
and Arkel
Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)
Pelléas et Mélisande is an opera in five acts with music by Claude Debussy. The French libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's Symbolist play Pelléas et Mélisande...
.
Recordings of him are available as Abner in Saul og David
Saul og David
Saul og David is the first of the two operas by the Danish composer Carl Nielsen. The four-act libretto, by Einar Christiansen, tells the Biblical story of Saul's jealousy of the young David, taken from the Book of Samuel. The first performance was at Det Kongelige Teater, Copenhagen on 28...
by Carl Nielsen
Carl Nielsen
Carl August Nielsen , , widely recognised as Denmark's greatest composer, was also a conductor and a violinist. Brought up by poor but musically talented parents on the island of Funen, he demonstrated his musical abilities at an early age...
, Shigolch in Lulu
Lulu (opera)
Lulu is an opera by the composer Alban Berg. The libretto was adapted by Berg himself from Frank Wedekind's plays Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora .-Composition history:...
, and both Sarastro, the Sprecher and the Second Armed Man in The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
; also doing bass solos in Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Requiem
Requiem (Mozart)
The Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death. A completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem Mass to commemorate the...
, Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's Missa Solemnis
Missa Solemnis
Missa Solemnis is Latin for solemn mass, and is a name which has been applied to a number of musical settings of the mass, especially particularly serious or large-scale ones.The following are notable examples:...
, Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Requiem
Requiem (Verdi)
The Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi is a musical setting of the Roman Catholic funeral mass for four soloists, double choir and orchestra. It was composed in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian poet and novelist much admired by Verdi. The first performance in San Marco in Milan on 22 May...
, Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
's The Dream of Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius, popularly called just Gerontius, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory...
, Rossini's Stabat Mater
Stabat Mater (Rossini)
Rossini composed his Stabat Mater late in his career after retiring from the composition of opera. He began the work in 1831 but did not complete it until 1841.-Composition:...
, and Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
's The Creation. He also left a fine recording of Mussorsky
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
's Songs and Dances of Death
Songs and Dances of Death
Songs and Dances of Death is a song cycle for voice and piano by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, written in the mid-1870s, to poems by Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov, a relative of the composer....
.
He retired from stage in 1980. From 1972 to 1989 he was a professor at the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen. He published several books, wrote orchestral compositions (Trombone Concerto, two symphonies), chamber music, a Stabat Mater, and songs. He also prepared orchestrations to compositions of Mussorgsky and Hugo Wolf
Hugo Wolf
Hugo Wolf was an Austrian composer of Slovene origin, particularly noted for his art songs, or lieder. He brought to this form a concentrated expressive intensity which was unique in late Romantic music, somewhat related to that of the Second Viennese School in concision but utterly unrelated in...
.
He died in Humlebæk, Denmark in April 2000, aged 80.
External links
- Kim Borg performing Franz Schubert's lied Litanei (1952) - (RealAudio)