1839–1927 · Sweden · 20th century
Laura Netzel (1839–1927) was a Swedish composer, pianist and conductor, born in Finland. She wrote chamber and piano music as well as choral and vocal works, some of them under the pseudonym N Lago. She organised charity concerts in Stockholm. The site offers her songs for voice and piano at intermediate and advanced levels.
Laura Constance Netzel was born on 1 March 1839 in the municipality of Rantasalmi, in the province of South Savo, Finland. Her maiden name was Pistolekors, and her father was Georg Fredrik Pistolekors. She lived in Finland for only one year: in 1840 the family moved to Stockholm for good.
Even so, she took pride in her Finnish roots throughout her life. In Stockholm she later organised concerts and engaged in charity work.
In the home where Laura grew up, as was customary at the time, musical evenings were held often. At one of them the organist Elfrida Andrée premiered her first piano trio (1860). Laura played the piano part, and two musicians from the court orchestra played violin and cello.
Laura studied the piano with Mauritz Gisiko and the Austrian pianist Anton Door, and took singing lessons from Julius Günther.
In 1866 Laura married Wilhelm Netzel, a professor at the Karolinska Institute. After the wedding she had fewer chances to perform in public, and that was when she turned to composing.
Her debut as a composer is usually dated to 1874, when a Stockholm ensemble called New Harmony gave a concert that included several of her pieces for women's voices. At first she appeared as N Lago, and not until a decade later, in 1884, did her first published work carry her own name.
The proceeds of her concerts went to charity. This made her work acceptable in the eyes of society, since earning money from music was not customary for a noblewoman.
Laura studied composition with Wilhelm Heinze and, in France, with Charles-Marie Widor. She began her formal studies only in the 1880s. For a long time she put them off, afraid of losing her intuitive musicality.
Most of her music is written in the chromatic style of late Romanticism, with touches of the French music of her day. French music magazines reviewed her work warmly, noting its melodic ingenuity, bold harmonies and, at the same time, a constant ease. Netzel was very proud of these qualities.
The French influence can be heard in her chromatic and other harmonies and in the many French titles of her pieces. It also shows in the fact that she wrote for the flute: in France, woodwinds held a standing that elsewhere in Europe was mostly given to the piano, the voice and the strings.
In 1887 came the Ballad (op. 19) for a solo voice with mixed choir and orchestra, and in 1889 three humoresques for piano (op. 26) and the song Trastens klagan (op. 34), set to words by King Oscar II. In 1890 she wrote the Stabat Mater, discussed below.
Her chamber works up to the end of the nineteenth century include a Serenade (op. 50, 1895) for violin, cello and piano, La gondoliera (op. 60, 1896) and a Suite (op. 62, 1897), both for violin and piano. By 1892 there was already the Berceuse et Tarentelle for violin and piano (op. 28), by 1893 the Sonata for piano in E-flat major (op. 27), by 1895 a Piano Trio in D minor (op. 78) and by 1899 a cello sonata with piano (op. 66). In 1900 came the Preludio e Fughetta (op. 68), a trio for piano, violin and cello.
She wrote for the voice as well. The year 1878 is given for the Four Songs (op. 46) for mezzo-soprano or baritone with piano, and 1884 for the Two Trios for women's voices with piano and the song Fjäriln to words by Elias Sehlstedt. In 1887 came Blomman to words by Bernhard Elis Malmström, in 1891 Morgonen to words by Johan Ludvig Runeberg, in 1894 the Ave Maria for voice with organ or piano (op. 41), and in 1898 Ett barns aftonbön to words by Carl Wilhelm Böttiger. In 1903 Netzel wrote the Fantasia for orchestra (op. 77).
Netzel was active in charity, supporting poor women, children and workers. For many years, guided by her religious faith, she organised and conducted popular concerts and social evenings in Stockholm. They raised large sums to help women, children and the poor.
For workers she held concerts on the British model, introducing listeners to academic music as an alternative to entertainment such as variety shows. The audiences kept growing, and the concerts often had to move to larger halls. Sometimes wealthy people were even turned away so that the seats could go to the poor.
These concerts featured well-known Swedish and foreign performers alongside young musicians who had not yet made a name. They often put Netzel's music into their own programmes on the big stages of Sweden and Europe.
Her largest work, in both forces and length, was the Stabat Mater, scored for solo voices, mixed choir and organ; she later arranged it for orchestra herself. The royal court attended the premiere in 1890, and King Oscar II afterwards wrote the composer a personal letter of thanks.
In 1893 she was entrusted with leading the women's musical arts section at the World's Fair in Chicago. Sweden was represented by four composers: besides Netzel herself, Elfrida Andrée, Valborg Aulin and Helena Munktell.
These four names are still counted among the most prominent Swedish women composers, and among the leading Swedish composers of the nineteenth century in general.
Laura Netzel died in Stockholm in 1927 and was buried at the Norra begravningsplatsen cemetery. She is known not only as a composer and pianist but also as a philanthropist. Her honours include the French Order of the Academic Palms and the Ottoman Order of Charity.
In recent years her music has been rediscovered. The Savo Music Society has taken up publishing works by Netzel and other little-known women composers. In August 2021 a festival of her music was held in Rantasalmi, where she was born, whose concerts presented her songs, instrumental pieces and works for orchestra.
Most of Netzel's music is written in the chromatic style of late Romanticism, with touches of the French music of her time. She composed vocal works, concertos, piano music, and pieces for choir and for choir with orchestra. She also wrote for the flute, which again points to French influence. She signed her works with her own surname and with the pseudonym N Lago.
Her larger works include the Stabat Mater (op. 45, 1890), the Fantasia for orchestra (op. 77, 1903) and the Piano Concerto in E minor (op. 84). The concerto was first heard at the Mikkeli Music Festival in 2020; the pianist Peter Friis Johansson reconstructed it and later recorded it on the BIS label.
Netzel set poems by Johan Ludvig Runeberg, among them Hvem styrde hit din väg? and Säg mig du lilla fogel. To words by Eric Bögh she wrote the ballad Les cloches du Monastère for soprano with piano or orchestra (op. 35). For choir she composed a setting of Psalm 146 for mixed choir and organ (op. 29) and the Deux Choeurs (op. 30) for women's voices with piano, and, to a text by Victor Hugo, Le papillion et la rose.
Her chamber pieces include a Hungarian Dance for cello and piano (op. 51), a Romance in E major for violin with piano or organ (op. 38), and two cradle songs (op. 59 and op. 69), the second for violin or flute with piano. Violin and piano also meet in her Humoresque in F major (op. 37) and her Andante religioso in D major (op. 48).
For piano she wrote the Humoresques (op. 26), the Sonata in E-flat major (op. 27) and the two concert études (op. 52). Her chamber music includes the Sonata for cello and piano (op. 66), the Piano Trio in D minor (op. 78) and many pieces for violin and piano.
The site offers six of her songs for voice and piano: Lied, Wunsch, Gruss, Rappelle-toi, Malgré-moi! and Je pense à toi! Five of them are marked at the intermediate-plus level, while Gruss is marked advanced. Rappelle-toi is set to a text by Alfred de Musset, and Malgré-moi! and Je pense à toi! to words by Jules Barbier. A good way in is to begin with the intermediate-plus songs and leave Gruss for later.