thumb|Wilhelm Stenhammar,
Carl Wilhelm Eugen Stenhammar (February 7, 1871 – November 20, 1927) was a Swedish composer, conductor and pianist. He is considered to be one of Sweden's most important composers at the turn of the 20th century, and one of the finest Swedish pianists of his time, with a reputation as a fine interpreter of the piano music of Beethoven.
Biography
Wilhelm Stenhammar was born in Stockholm to and . His older brother was the architect Ernst Stenhammar. He demonstrated a talent for music at an early age, both as pianist and composer, writing piano sonatas and songs during his teenage years. The resultant critical acclaim led to invitations for concert performances in Denmark, England and Germany, effectively launching Stenhammar's career as an internationally renowned concert pianist. He subsequently recorded five piano rolls for Welte-Mignon on 21 September 1905.
As a composer, Stenhammar was initially influenced by German and Austrian music, especially that of Richard Wagner and Anton Bruckner. Stenhammar himself described the style of his First Symphony in F major as "idyllic Bruckner". He subsequently sought to liberate himself from this influence, with the goal of writing in a more "Nordic" style, looking to Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius for guidance. The latter's Symphony No. 2, especially, had a great effect on him, leading him to change his style and withdraw his own First Symphony from performance. Also in 2008, the Swedish Art Music Society published the world premiere edition of the Allegro Brillante for piano quartet composed in 1891 and the Allegro non tanto for piano trio composed in 1895.
Stenhammar's string quartets were composed over a 22-year period from 1894 to 1916. Seven such works were completed; however, one of them (in F minor, 1897) was withdrawn by the composer immediately after its first performance, although it has since been revived and recorded. Writing in The Chamber Music Journal, Raymond Silvertrust argues that Stenhammar's cycle of six (numbered) quartets is the most important to be written between those of Johannes Brahms and Béla Bartók. Silvertrust notes that, tonally, they range from the middle-late Romantics to a style akin to mature Sibelius, exhibiting a fine grasp of instrumental timbre and technique, with part writing that is idiomatic and appropriate to the instruments. Stenhammar's interest in chamber music, and his skill as a composer in this genre, may have been influenced by his partnership with the Aulin Quartet,