Image Source: Wikipedia

Helge Lindberg

Helge Igor Lindberg (1887–1928) was a Finnish opera singer who was a popular concert singer in the 1920s throughout Europe. He was also a sculptor. Helge Lindberg first studied violin at the conservatory in Helsinki. In 1907, he studied voice in Munich and finished his studies in Florence. He was known for singing works by Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel and Yrjö Kilpinen.

From Musica Fennica (1965) (Timo Makinin and Seppo Nummi, authors):

Helge Igor Lindberg, [a] baritone, spent a significant part of his life in Vienna. He was a great individualist both as a private person and as an artist, and his legendary career was to be both strange and extraordinary. Immediately on leaving school he left the country to study singing abroad. He first travelled to Munich and from there to Florence and Stuttgart. In 1919 he settled in Vienna and died there suddenly in 1928 after a serious illness. His best years were the last years of his life. Helge Lindberg was a powerful man, an athlete both in his looks and in his artistic demands. He was famous for his breathing technique. He liked to sing the arias of Bach and Handel and had mastered their long phrases, developing his own technique to an almost superhuman degree. He was also interested in his contemporary modernists, such as Schoenberg. Of Finnish composers his repertoire mostly included Kilpinen's songs. His fame as a singer was based on a technique that had been developed to perfection and on his minutely-studied performing style.

He received a medal from the King of Sweden for his singing. His known sculptures include a 12-inch wooden statue of himself as a satyr (1927); a sitting Buddha; a crucified Christ; and a black stone bust of his second wife (lost in Buenos Aires after her death).

He died of pneumonia in 1928 and his ashes are interred on a small island off the southern coast of Finland (San Scher), which he had bought as a summer retreat. He was survived by his first wife Ernestine (Erna); his second wife Friederike (Fritzi), a member of the novelty group the Seven Viennese Singing Sisters (see Wikipedia link); and his sons Kim, Lars, and Dian.

A biography was written on his life by Kosti Vehanen: Vehanen, Kosti: Mestarilaulaja Helge Lindberg. Kustannusyhtiö Kirja, Helsinki 1929.

Known recordings include: "Frohsinn und Schwermut" (Händel), "Wie glänzt der helle Mond" (Wolf) and "Der Wanderer" (Schubert) and "Froh lacht die Brust" (see link to song below). Six recordings have been digitized and placed online by the Music Library of the National Library of Finland and can be found in Raita, a collection of digitized early Finnish sound recordings, by searching this site with "Helge Lindberg".

Birth and Death Data: Born October 1, 1887, Died January 3, 1928

Date Range of DAHR Recordings: 1926 - 1942

Roles Represented in DAHR: composer, songwriter

= Recordings are available for online listening.
= Recordings were issued from this master. No recordings issued from other masters.

Recordings

Company Matrix No. Size First Recording Date Title Primary Performer Description Role Audio
Victor BVE-48795 10-in. 1/16/1929 Den Riala jazzen Svenska Sjömans Orkestern Instrumental ensemble composer  
Columbia W106613 10-in. April 1926 Sverige är bäst ändå Teddy Larson Male vocal solo composer  
Columbia W109539 10-in. July 1928 Nyckelhålet : Vals Henry Corsell Male vocal solo, with instrumental ensemble composer  
Columbia W111347 10-in. December 1929 Landsplågan Oscar Danielson Orkester Instrumental ensemble composer  
Columbia W111348 10-in. December 1929 Är det nån som sett Maria? Oscar Danielson Orkester ; Ernst Svedelius Instrumental ensemble, with male vocal solo composer  
Columbia W111419 10-in. December 1929 En kärleksnatt i Barcelona : Fox trot Ernst Svedelius Male vocal solo, with instrumental ensemble composer  
Columbia W112066 10-in. May 1930 Fusyjama : Fox trot Oscar Danielson Orkester Instrumental ensemble composer  
Columbia W112067 10-in. May 1930 Igår så var den din Oscar Danielson Orkester Instrumental ensemble composer  
Gramophone 0NA68 10-in. before 9/10/1942 Gjertegutten Hilmar Høiensahl ; Lindy's ensemble Instrumental ensemble, with male vocal solo songwriter  
Gramophone 0T469 10-in. 9/14/1931 Det blinkar och blänker Nils Jacobsson ; Ragnar Sundquists Kvintett Instrumental quintet, with male vocal solo composer  

Citation

Discography of American Historical Recordings, s.v. "Lindberg, Helge," accessed November 25, 2024, https://adpprod1.library.ucsb.edu/names/114803.

Lindberg, Helge. (2024). In Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved November 25, 2024, from https://adpprod1.library.ucsb.edu/names/114803.

"Lindberg, Helge." Discography of American Historical Recordings. UC Santa Barbara Library, 2024. Web. 25 November 2024.

DAHR Persistent Identifier

URI: https://adpprod1.library.ucsb.edu/names/114803

Wikipedia content provided under the terms of the Creative Commons BY-SA license

Feedback

Send the Editors a message about this record.