Johan Halvorsen was a Norwegian composer, conductor, and violinist, born 15 March 1864 in Drammen and died 4 December 1935. An accomplished violinist from an early age, he studied in Christiania (now Oslo) and Stockholm, held concertmaster posts in Bergen, Leipzig, and Aberdeen, and studied further in Saint Petersburg, Leipzig, Berlin, and Liège before returning to Norway in 1893 as conductor of the theatre orchestra at Den Nationale Scene and the Bergen Philharmonic. In 1899 he became conductor of the orchestra at Kristiania’s new National Theatre, a post he held for 30 years, during which he conducted more than 30 operas and wrote incidental music for over 30 plays, alongside three symphonies and two Norwegian Rhapsodies composed after his retirement. He married Edvard Grieg’s niece Anna and orchestrated several of Grieg’s piano works, including the funeral march played at Grieg’s own funeral.

Halvorsen extended the national Romantic tradition established by Grieg into a distinctive, colourfully orchestrated idiom of his own, and as a conductor and theatre composer he shaped Norwegian musical life for three decades from the podium of the National Theatre. His Passacaglia on a theme by Handel, written for violin and viola in 1897, has become a repertoire staple and a favorite vehicle for arrangers and virtuoso duo performers across an unusually wide range of instrumental combinations.

Sources:

• https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mn0001714998