Magnus, meaning "Great" in Latin, was sometimes used as a first name among Romans but was not particularly common among them. The best-known Roman bearing the name was the third-century usurper. The name gained wider popularity in the Middle Ages, various European peoples, and their royal houses, being introduced to it upon being converted to the Latin-speaking Catholic Christianity. This was especially the case with Scandinavian royalty and nobility.

As a Scandinavian forename, it was extracted from the Frankish ruler Charlemagne's Latin name "Carolus Magnus" and re-analyzed as Old Norse ''magn-hús'' = "house of might/power".

Magnus may refer to:

People

People with the sole name Magnus

Kings of Norway

Magnus I of Norway (1024–1047)

Magnus II of Norway (1048?–1069)

Magnus III of Norway (1073–1103)

Magnus IV of Norway (c. 1115–1139)

Magnus V of Norway (1156–1184)

Magnus VI of Norway (1238–1280)

Kings of Sweden

Magnus I of Sweden (c. 1106–1134)

Magnus II of Sweden (died 1161)

Magnus III of Sweden (1240–1290)

Magnus IV of Sweden (1316–1374), also Magnus VII of Norway

King of Livonia

Magnus of Livonia (1540–1583), also Duke of Holstein

Dukes

Magnus, Duke of Saxony (c. 1045–1106)

Magnus the Pious, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (before 1318–1369)

Magnus II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1324–1373), also known as Magnus with the Necklace

Magnus I, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg (1488–1543)

Other

Magnus (Roman usurper) (died 235)

Magnus Maximus, Roman usurper and Western Roman Emperor (died 388)

Magnus (consul 460) (c. 390 or 405 – 475)

Magnus (bishop), Roman Catholic Bishop of Turku between 1291 and 1308

Magnus of Nisibis, Alexandrian doctor and professor of the fourth century

Pompey Magnus, Roman consul and general who was given the honorific "Magnus"

Saints

Albertus Magnus (born 1193-1206, died 1280), German theologian and philosopher

Magnus of Füssen, missionary saint of southern Germany, seventh or eighth century

Magnus of Avignon (died 660), bishop and governor of Avignon

Magnus Erlendsson, Earl of Orkney (1075-1115?)

People with the family name Magnus

Elisabeth von Magnus, Austrian singer

Heinrich Gustav Magnus, professor of chemistry

Heinrich Magnus, German physicist who discovered the Magnus effect

Ludwig Immanuel Magnus, German mathematician

Wilhelm Magnus, German mathematician

Siobhan Magnus, American singer

In fiction

Leon Magnus, a character from ''Tales of Destiny''

Will Magnus, a scientist character in the DC Comics universe

Will Magnus (Amalgam Comics), a character in the Amalgam Comics universe

Dr. Helen Magnus, Ashley Magnus, characters in the Canadian fantasy TV series ''Sanctuary''

People with the given name Magnus

Magnus W. Alexander, German engineer

Magnus Arvedson, Swedish ice hockey player

Magnus Bahne, Finnish footballer

Magnus Bäckstedt, a Swedish road cyclist

Magnus Betnér, a Swedish comedian

Magnus Carlsen, Norwegian chess grandmaster

Magnus Erlendsson, Earl of Orkney

Magnus Hirschfeld, German physician and sexologist

Magnus Larsson, former professional tennis player from Sweden

Magnus Magnusson, Icelandic-born BBC personality and ''Mastermind'' quiz-master

Magnus Norman, former professional Swedish tennis player

Max Magnus Norman, contemporary artist

Magnús Ver Magnússon of Iceland, four-time World’s Strongest Man champion

Magnus Samuelsson, a Swedish strongman and former World's Strongest Man

Magnús Scheving, creator and co-star of the children's television show LazyTown

Magnus Büchel, Liechtenstein judoka

Magnus Pääjärvi-Svensson, Swedish hockey player

Magnus Rosén, ex-HammerFall bassist

Prince Sverre Magnus of Norway, Prince of Norway

In fiction

Magnus Bane, a character in the ''Mortal Instruments Trilogy''

Magnus Eisengrim, a character in the ''Deptford Trilogy''

Magnus Gallant, a main character in ''Ogre Battle 64''

Magnus (Marvel Comics), two characters in the Marvel universe

Magnus Pym, the central character of ''A Perfect Spy''

Magnus, Robot Fighter, a comic book character published by Gold Key and Valiant comics

Magnus the Red, a character in the ''Warhammer 40,000'' universe

Magnus (Cleveland State University), the official mascot of Cleveland State University athletics

Magnus (vampire), a character in ''The Vampire Chronicles'' by Anne Rice

A vehicle in the Xbox 360 video game ''Full Auto''

Ultra Magnus, several characters in the ''Transformers'' universe

Dr. Helen Magnus, character in the Canadian fantasy TV series ''Sanctuary''

A character in the upcoming Nintendo 3DS video game ''Kid Icarus Uprising''

Pseudonyms

Magnus, pseudonym of American magician Jeff McBride

Magnus, pen name of Italian comic book artist Roberto Raviola

Magnus (formerly Brutus Magnus), ring name of English professional wrestler Nick Aldis (born 1986)

Species

See also

Manus (disambiguation)

Magnes (disambiguation)

Category:Masculine given names Category:Latin masculine given names

bg:Магн da:Magnus de:Magnus es:Magnus eo:Magnus fr:Magnus it:Magno is:Magnús nl:Magnus ja:マグヌス no:Magnus nn:Magnus pl:Magnus pt:Magnus ru:Магнус fi:Magnus sv:Magnus

Magnus Midtbø (15 December 1942 – 25 February 2010) was a Norwegian trade unionist and politician for the Labour Party.

He was born in Ålvik. He took education in electronics, and worked in this field before becoming a leading trade unionist. He joined the union Norwegian Engineers and Managers Association in 1971, and served as deputy leader from 1982 to 1989, acting leader from 1989 to 1990 and leader from 1990 to 2005. An exception was the period from 1996 to 1997, when he served in Jagland's Cabinet as State Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Research and Church Affairs.

Midtbø died in February 2010 in his Nesodden home.

References

Category:1942 births Category:2010 deaths Category:People from Kvam Category:Labour Party (Norway) politicians Category:Norwegian trade unionists Category:Norwegian state secretaries Category:People from Nesodden

Coordinates	40°26′30″N80°00′00″N
Name	Magnus Carlsen
Birthname	Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen
Country	Norway
Birth date	November 30, 1990
Birth place	Tønsberg, Norway
Title	Grandmaster
Rating	2823(No. 1 in the September 2011 FIDE World Rankings)
Peakrating	2826(July 2010)
Ranking	1
Peakranking	1 (January 2010) }}

Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess Grandmaster and chess prodigy who is currently the number-one ranked player in the world. In January 2010 he became the seventh player ranked number one in the world on the official FIDE rating list. His peak rating is 2826, the second highest peak rating in history after Garry Kasparov.

On 26 April 2004 Carlsen became a Grandmaster at the age of , making him the third-youngest Grandmaster in history. On 1 January 2010 the new FIDE rating list was published, and at the age of he became the youngest chess player in history to be ranked world number one, breaking the record previously held by Vladimir Kramnik. Carlsen was also the 2009 World blitz chess champion.

His performance at the September–October 2009 Nanjing Pearl Spring tournament has been described as one of the greatest in history and lifted him to an Elo rating of 2801, making him the fifth player to achieve a rating over 2800 – and aged 18 years 10 months at the time, by far the youngest to do so.

Based on his rating, Carlsen qualified for the Candidates Tournament which determined the challenger to World Champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2012. However in November 2010 he announced he was withdrawing from the Candidates tournament; he was replaced by Alexander Grischuk.

Childhood

Born in Tønsberg, Vestfold, Carlsen currently lives in Haslum, Bærum, near Norway's capital, Oslo. He played his first chess tournament at the age of eight and was later coached at a Norwegian high school (for athletes) by the country's top player, Grandmaster (GM) Simen Agdestein. Agdestein introduced his civil worker Torbjørn Ringdal Hansen, currently an International Master, to Carlsen, and they had one training session every week, along with one of Carlsen's close friends. Becoming an International Master, Carlsen was given a year off from elementary school to participate in international chess tournaments during the fall season of 2003. In that same year, he finished third in the European Under-12 Boys Championship.

Chess career

2004

Carlsen was brought to the attention of the international chess world after his victory in the C group at the Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee. He had a score of 10½/13, losing just one game (against the highest rated player of the C group, Dusko Pavasovic). As a result of the victory, he took his first Grandmaster norm and achieved a performance rating of 2702. Particularly notable was his win over Sipke Ernst in the penultimate round, when Carlsen sacrificed material to mate him in just 29 moves. Carlsen won the Audience Prize for that game, as the best game of the round (including the games played in the A and B groups). The first 23 moves in that game had already been played in another game Almagro Llanas-Gustafsson, Madrid 2003 (which ended in a draw), but Carlsen's over-the-board novelty immediately led to a winning position. Carlsen's victory in the C group qualified him to play in the B group in 2005, and it also led Lubomir Kavalek, writing for the ''Washington Post'', to give him the title "Mozart of chess". Agdestein, who was once a young GM at 18, said in an interview that Carlsen was a significantly better player than he was himself at the same age. He also said that Carlsen had an excellent memory and played an unusually wide range of different openings. Carlsen's prowess caught the attention of Microsoft, who became his sponsor.

Carlsen obtained his second GM norm in the Moscow Aeroflot Open in February 2004. In a blitz chess tournament in Reykjavík, Iceland, Carlsen defeated former world champion Anatoly Karpov on 17 March 2004. The blitz tournament was a preliminary event leading up to a rapid knockout tournament beginning the next day, where Carlsen achieved one draw against Garry Kasparov, who was then the top-rated player in the world, before losing to Kasparov after 32 moves of the second game, thus being knocked out of the tournament.

In the sixth Dubai Open Chess Championship, held 18–28 April 2004, Carlsen obtained his third Grandmaster norm (enough for getting the GM title), after getting four wins and four draws before the last game was to be played. As a result of this he was at the time the world's youngest Grandmaster and the second youngest person ever to hold GM status, after Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine who attained the feat at 12 years and 7 months of age in 2002.

Carlsen was the youngest player ever to participate in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004, but was knocked out in the first round on tie breaks by Levon Aronian.

In July 2004, Carlsen and Berge Østenstad (then the reigning Norwegian champion) tied for first in the Norwegian Chess Championship, each scoring seven out of nine possible points. A two-game match between them was arranged to decide the title. Both games were drawn, which left Østenstad the champion because he had superior tiebreaks in the tournament.

2005

In Smartfish Chess Masters at the Drammen chess festival 2004–05 (Norway) Carlsen defeated Alexei Shirov, ranked number 10 in the world. In June 2005 in the Ciudad de Leon rapid chess tournament Carlsen played a four-game semi-final against Viswanathan Anand, who was ranked second in the world at the time. Magnus lost 3–1. Carlsen was invited to the tournament as the most promising young chess player in 2005.

In the 2005 Norwegian Chess Championship, Carlsen again finished in a shared first place, this time with his mentor Simen Agdestein. A playoff between them was arranged between 7 November and 10 November. This time Carlsen had the better tiebreaks, but the rule giving the player with better tiebreaks scores the title in the event of a 1–1 draw had been revoked previously. The match was closely fought, Agdestein won the first game, Carlsen won the second, so the match went into a phase of two and two rapid games until there was a winner. Carlsen won the first rapid game, Agdestein the second. Then followed a series of three draws until Agdestein won the championship title with a victory in the sixth rapid game.

At the end of 2005 he participated at the World Chess Cup 2005 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. In the knock-out tournament, Carlsen upset the 44th-ranked Georgian Zurab Azmaiparashvili in round one, winning 2–0 at rapid chess after a 1–1 tie in the normal length games, and proceeded to beat Tajik Farrukh Amonatov and Bulgarian Ivan Cheparinov (also after rapid chess) to reach the round of 16. There he lost 1½–2½ to Evgeny Bareev, which prevented him from finishing in the top eight. He then won against Joël Lautier 1½–½ and Vladimir Malakhov 3½–2½ securing him at least a tenth place and therefore a spot in the Candidate Matches. Carlsen became the youngest player to be an official World Championship Candidate.

In October 2005 he took first place at the Arnold Eikrem Memorial in Gausdal with eight out of nine points and a performance rating of 2792 at the age of 14.

2006

In the January 2006 fide list, at the age of 15 years and 31 days, he officially attained 2625 elo rating, which made Carlsen the youngest person to break the 2600 elo barrier. In 2008, Wesley So broke that record. Carlsen qualified for a place in the Corus B group from his 2005 first place in Corus group C. His shared first with Motylev with 9/13 (+6 -1 =6) qualified him to play in the Corus A group in 2007.

In the 2006 Norwegian Chess Championship, Carlsen was close to winning outright, but a last round loss to Berge Østenstad again tied him for first place with Agdestein. The last-round loss deprived Magnus of beating Agdestein's record of becoming the youngest Norwegian champion ever. Nonetheless, in the play-off 19–21 November Carlsen won 3–1. After two draws in the initial full time games, Magnus won both rapid games in round two, securing his first Norwegian championship.

Magnus won the 2006 Glitnir Blitz Tournament in Iceland. He won 2–0 over Viswanathan Anand (2003 FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion, 2004 Amber Rapid Chess Champion, 2007 FIDE Classical World Champion) in the semi finals. Carlsen also won 2–0 in the finals.

Magnus scored 6/8 in the 37th Chess Olympiad in 2006 against opponents averaging 2627 Elo, gaining 18 Elo (a rating performance of 2820 points). One of his notable wins was against top English grandmaster Michael Adams.

In the Midnight Sun Chess Tournament, Carlsen had some misses and came in second, beaten by Sergei Shipov (FIDE-Elo: 2576).

In the 2006 Biel grandmaster tournament he achieved second place, after having beaten the eventual winner Alexander Morozevich twice (once with each color).

In the NH Chess Tournament held in Amsterdam in August 2006, Carlsen participated in an 'Experience' v 'Rising Stars' Scheveningen team match. The 'Rising Stars' won the match 22–28 with Carlsen achieving the best individual score for the youngsters, 6½/10 and a 2700 Elo performance, thus winning the right to participate in the 2007 Melody Amber tournament.

In the ''World Blitz Championship'' at Rishon LeZion, Israel in September 2006, he was number 8 of 16 participants with 7½/15 points.

In the rapid chess tournament ''Rencontres nationales et internationales d'échecs'' in Cap d'Agde, France he got to the semifinal, losing to Sergey Karjakin.

Carlsen achieved a shared eighth place of 10 participants in the ''Mikhail Tal Memorial'' in Moscow with two losses and seven draws. In the associated blitz tournament ''Tal Blitz Cup'' he received 17½/34 points and ninth place in a group of 18 participants.

2007

In the 2007 Corus chess tournament Carlsen, playing in group A for the first time, had to settle for the last place after nine draws and four losses, scoring 4½ points in 13 rounds. In the prestigious Linares chess tournament Carlsen met the following top-rated players: Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, Peter Svidler, Alexander Morozevich, Levon Aronian, Peter Leko, and Vassily Ivanchuk (replacing Teimour Radjabov). With the significantly lowest Elo rating, he achieved a second place (on tiebreaks) with 7½ points after four wins, seven draws and three losses, and an Elo performance of 2778.

In March 2007, Carlsen played for the first time in the Melody Amber blind and rapid chess tournament in Monte Carlo. In the 11 rounds he achieved eight draws and three losses in the blindfold, and three wins, seven draws and one loss in the rapid part. This resulted in a shared ninth place in the blindfold, shared second place in the rapid (beaten only by Anand), and an eighth place in the overall tournament.

In May–June 2007, he participated in the Candidates Tournament for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2007. He was paired with the top seed Levon Aronian. The six-game match was drawn (two wins, two draws, and two losses), with Carlsen coming from behind twice. The four-game rapid playoff was drawn as well (one win, two draws, and one loss), with Carlsen winning the last game to stay in the match. Finally, Aronian won both tiebreaker (blitz) games, to eliminate Carlsen from the Championship.

In the July 2007 FIDE list, at the age of 16 years and 7 months, he officially attained 2710 Elo rating, which made Carlsen the youngest person to break the 2700 Elo barrier. As of January 2011, this record has not been broken.

In July–August 2007, he won the International Chess Festival Biel Grandmaster Tournament 2007, with a +2 record (an Elo performance of 2753). His score was equalled by Alexander Onischuk and by the tie-breaker rule of the tournament, they played a tie-breaker match to determine the winner. After drawing two rapid and two blitz games, Carlsen won the armageddon game. He became the youngest person ever to win a category 18 tournament.

Immediately after the Biel tournament, Carlsen entered the open Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromsø, but his +5=4 and fourth place result was somewhat disappointing. In the first round, Carlsen surprisingly conceded a draw to his classmate Brede Hagen (rated 2034) after having a lost position at one point. A game which attracted some attention was his sixth round win over his own father, Henrik Carlsen.

In December 2007, he reached the semi-final round of the World Chess Cup 2007, after defeating Michael Adams in the round of 16, and Ivan Cheparinov in the quarter-finals. In the semi-final, he was eliminated by the eventual winner Gata Kamsky, ½:1½.

2008

Playing for the second time in the top group A of the Corus chess tournament, Carlsen showed a big improvement over his 2007 performance. His final score was eight points in 13 rounds, an Elo performance of 2830. Carlsen scored five wins (including as Black against former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik), two losses and six draws. He shared first place with Levon Aronian, becoming the youngest person ever to win a category 20 tournament.

At the 2008 Linares chess tournament, Carlsen had another 2800+ Elo performance, scoring eight out of fourteen (five wins, three losses and six draws). He finished in sole second place, ½ point behind the winner, world champion Viswanathan Anand.

In March 2008, Carlsen played for the second time in the Melody Amber blind and rapid chess tournament, which was held in Nice for the first time. In the 11 rounds he achieved four wins, four draws and two losses in the blindfold, and three wins, six draws and two losses in the rapid part. This resulted in a shared fifth place in the blindfold, shared third place in the rapid and a shared second place in the overall tournament.

Carlsen was one of 21 players in the six-tournament FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2009, a qualifier for the World Chess Championship 2012. In the first tournament, in Baku, Azerbaijan, in April–May 2008, he finished in a three-way tie for first place, with another 2800 Elo performance. Carlsen later withdrew from the Grand Prix cycle despite his initial success, citing "dramatic change[s] to ... regulations."

Carlsen won a rapid match against Peter Leko held at Miskolc, Hungary, scoring 5:3 (two wins, six draws).

In June, Carlsen won an annual Aerosvit event. In his strongest tournament performance at that point in his career, he finished undefeated with eight out of eleven (five wins, six draws) in a category 19 field. His Elo performance was 2878.

Playing in a category 18 Biel tournament, Carlsen finished third with six points out of ten (three wins, one loss, six draws), with Elo performance of 2741, his first sub-2800 performance of 2008.

In the Mainz World Rapid Chess Championship, Carlsen finished in second place after losing the final to defending champion Anand 3:1 (two losses, two draws). To reach the final Magnus played against Judit Polgár scoring 1½ point out of two (one win, one draw), against Anand scoring one point out of two (two draws) and against Morozevich scoring one point out of two (two draws).

In the category 21 Bilbao Masters, Carlsen finished second with a 2768 performance rating (three wins, three losses, four draws).

2009

Playing in Group A of the Corus chess tournament, Carlsen tied for fifth with a 2739 performance (two wins, one loss, ten draws).

In the Linares chess tournament, Carlsen finished third with a 2777 performance (three wins, two losses, nine draws). In this tournament, he defeated World Champion Viswanathan Anand and the eventual winner Alexander Grischuk for the first time under classical time controls.

Carlsen tied for second place with Veselin Topalov at the M-Tel Masters (category 21) tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria. He lost to eventual winner Alexei Shirov in their final game, dropping him from first.

Carlsen won the category 21 Nanjing Pearl Spring tournament, 2½ points ahead of second-place finisher Topalov, the world's highest-rated player at the time. He scored 8/10 (six wins, four draws, no losses), winning every game as White (against Topalov, Wang Yue, Leko, Radjabov, and Jakovenko), and also winning as Black against Jakovenko. By rating performance, this was one of the greatest results in history, with a performance rating of 3002. This lifted his FIDE rating to 2801, making him the 5th and youngest player to ever surpass 2800.

In the Tal Memorial 2009, played from 5 November to 14 November, Carlsen started with seven straight draws, but finished with wins over Ruslan Ponomariov and Peter Leko. This result put Carlsen in shared second place behind Kramnik and equal with Ivanchuk.

After the Tal Memorial, Carlsen won the 2009 World Blitz Championship, played from 16 November to 18 November in Moscow, Russia. His score of 28 wins, 6 draws and 8 losses left him three points ahead of Anand, who finished in second place.

Carlsen entered the 2009 London Chess Classic as the top seed in a field including Kramnik, Hikaru Nakamura, Michael Adams, Nigel Short, Ni Hua, Luke McShane and David Howell. He defeated Kramnik in round one and went on to win the tournament with 13/21 (three points were awarded for a win, and one for a draw; using classical scoring he finished with 5/7) and a performance rating of 2844, one point ahead of Kramnik. This victory has propelled him to the top of the FIDE rating list, surpassing Veselin Topalov.

Carlsen's average rating from the July 2009 and January 2010 FIDE lists will enable him to qualify for the Candidates Tournament of the World Chess Championship 2012 cycle.

In early 2009 Carlsen engaged former world champion Garry Kasparov as a personal trainer. In September 2009 their partnership was confirmed in Norwegian newspapers.

In a December 2009 interview with TIME Magazine, in response to a question whether he used computers when studying chess, Carlsen revealed that he does not use a chess set when studying on his own.

He won the Chess Oscar for 2009. The Chess Oscar is awarded to the year's best player according to a worldwide poll of leading chess critics, writers, and journalists conducted by the Russian chess magazine 64.

2010

Ahead of 2010, Carlsen said that he would be playing in fewer tournaments the coming year. The cooperation with Kasparov continued until March that year.

Carlsen won the Corus chess tournament played January 16–31 with 8½ points (five wins, seven draws, one loss). His ninth-round loss to Kramnik ended a streak of 36 rated games undefeated. Carlsen appeared to struggle in the last round against Fabiano Caruana, but saved a draw leaving him half a point ahead of Kramnik and Shirov.

The March 2010 FIDE rating list showed Carlsen with a new peak rating of 2813, a figure that only Kasparov has bettered. In the same month it was announced that Carlsen had split from Kasparov and would no longer be using him as a trainer, although this was put into different context by Carlsen himself in an interview with the German magazine ''Der Spiegel'' stating that they would remain in contact and that he would continue to attend training sessions with Kasparov.

Carlsen shared first place alongside Ivanchuk in the Amber 2010 blindfold and rapid tournament. Carlsen scored 6½ points in the blindfold and 8 points in the rapid, giving 14½ points from a possible 22 points.

In May 2010 it was revealed that Carlsen had helped Viswanathan Anand prepare for the World Chess Championship 2010 against challenger Veselin Topalov, which Anand won 6½-5½ to retain the title. Carlsen had also helped Anand prepare for the World Chess Championship 2007 and World Chess Championship 2008.

In his first tournament since his announced departure from Kasparov, Carlsen played in the Bazna Kings Tournament in Romania from June 14 through June 25. The tournament was a double round robin event involving Wang Yue, Boris Gelfand, former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov, Teimour Radjabov, and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. After drawing his first three games, Carlsen won his next four and set a personal livechess rating peak of 2825.1. He finished with 7½/10 and a 2918 performance rating, winning the tournament by two points over Radjabov and Gelfand. The victory ensured that Carlsen remained at the top of the Elo rating list. His official rating hit 2826, a figure exceeded only by Kasparov and just 25 points shy of tying Kasparov's all-time record.

Carlsen then played in a rapid tournament from August 28 to August 30 at the Arctic Securities Chess Stars tournament in Kristiansund, Norway. The field featured world champion Viswanathan Anand, female world #1 Judit Polgár, and Jon Ludvig Hammer. In the preliminary round robin, Carlsen scored 3½/6 to qualify for the final, second behind Anand. In the final, Carlsen defeated Anand 1½-½ to win the championship.

Following this event, Carlsen suffered setbacks in his next two tournaments. In the 39th Chess Olympiad from September 19 to October 4, he scored 4½/8, losing three games, to Baadur Jobava, Michael Adams and Sanan Sjugirov; these were his first losses with the black pieces in more than a year. His team, Norway, finished 51st out of 149 teams.

Carlsen's next tournament was the final of the Grand Slam Chess Masters supertournament in Bilbao from October 9 to October 15, 2010, which he had qualified for automatically by winning three of the previous year's four Grand Slam chess events (2009 Nanjing Pearl Spring, 2010 Corus, 2010 Bazna Kings). Along with Carlsen, the finals consisted of World Champion Viswanathan Anand and the highest two scorers from the preliminary stage held in Shanghai in September, which featured Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian, Alexei Shirov, and Wang Hao; Shirov and Kramnik qualified. The official September 2010 ratings of Carlsen, Anand, Kramnik and Shirov made the Grand Slam final the strongest tournament in chess history, with an average ELO of 2789. In the first round, Carlsen lost on the black side of the Queen's Indian Defense to Kramnik; this was Carlsen's second consecutive loss to Kramnik, and placed his hold on the world #1 ranking in serious jeopardy. In his second round, Carlsen lost with the white pieces to Anand in the Ruy Lopez; this was his first loss as white since January 2010, and dropped him to world #2 in the live rankings behind Anand. Carlsen recovered somewhat in the latter part of the tournament, finishing with 2½/6, including a win over Shirov; the tournament was won by Kramnik with 4/6. Carlsen finished this tournament with a rating of 2802, two points behind Anand at 2804 who officially ended Carlsen's reign at world #1. These setbacks called into question from some whether Carlsen's activities outside chess, such as modelling for G-Star Raw, was distracting him from performing well at the chess board. Carlsen said he did not believe there was a direct connection, and that he was looking forward to the Pearl Spring tournament, where he had scored 8/10 in 2009.

Following the Grand Slam Chess Masters final, Carlsen's next tournament was the 2010 Pearl Spring chess tournament, from October 19 to 30 in Nanjing, China, against Anand, world #2 Veselin Topalov, Vugar Gashimov, Wang Yue, and Étienne Bacrot. This was the only tournament in 2010 to feature Anand, Carlsen and Topalov, at the time the top three players in the world, and was the first tournament in history to feature three players rated at least 2800. With early wins over Bacrot, Yue, and Topalov with white, Carlsen took the early lead, extending his winning streak with white in Nanjing to eight. This streak was halted by a draw to Anand in round seven, but in the penultimate round Carlsen secured first place by defeating Topalov with the black pieces. This was his second victory in the tournament over the former world #1, and improved his score to 6½/9. The victory clinched Carlsen a place in the 2011 Grand Slam Chess Masters final, his final score of 7/10 (with a performance rating of 2903) was a full point ahead of runner-up Anand, and moved him back to world #1 on the live rankings.

Carlsen next played in the 2010 World Blitz Championship, in Moscow from November 16 to 18, attempting to defend his 2009 title. With a score of 23.5/38, he finished in third place behind Teimour Radjabov and winner Levon Aronian.

Carlsen won the 2010 London Chess Classic from December 8 to 15 in a field comprising world champion Viswanathan Anand, former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, American number one Hikaru Nakamura, and British players Michael Adams, Nigel Short, David Howell, and Luke McShane. Carlsen had a rocky start, losing his Black games to McShane and Anand in rounds 1 and 3, but winning with White against Adams and Nakamura in rounds 2 and 4. He joined the lead with a Black win over Howell in round 5, and managed to stay in the lead following a harrowing draw with Black against Kramnik in round 6, before defeating Short in the last round with White. Since the tournament was played with three points for a win, Carlsen's +4=1-2 score put him ahead of Anand and McShane who scored +2=5 (a more traditional two-points-for-a-win system would have yielded a three-way tie, with Carlsen still on top having the better tiebreaker due to four games with black - Anand and McShane had to play only three times with black).

Carlsen won the Chess Oscar for 2010 by narrowly beating Viswanathan Anand.

2011

Carlsen competed in the GM-A group of the Tata Steel Chess (Corus) tournament from January 14 to 30 in Wijk aan Zee in an attempt to defend his title; the field included world champion Viswanathan Anand, reigning world blitz champion Levon Aronian, former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk, Hikaru Nakamura, and former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov among others. Despite losing games with White against Anish Giri and reigning Russian champion Ian Nepomniachtchi, Carlsen finished with 8.0/13, including victories over Kramnik and tournament winner Hikaru Nakamura. Although Carlsen's performance raised his rating from 2814 to 2815, Anand's 8.5/13 score elevated his rating to 2817, making him the official world #1 for the March 2011 FIDE rating list.

The first tournament victory of 2011 came in the Bazna Kings tournament, a double round-robin played in Medias from June 11 to June 21. Carlsen finished with 6.5 points (+3=7), equal with Sergey Karjakin but with a better tiebreak score. Carlsen won his White games against Nakamura, Nisipeanu, and Ivanchuk and drew the rest of the games. This result raised Carlsen's rating by six points to 2821, and returned Carlsen to first place on the live rating list.

As of July 2011, Carlsen is again #1 on the official FIDE rating list with a 2821 rating. As of July 22, Carlsen is at a career high live rating of 2828.

Playing style

As a teenager, Carlsen became known for his attacking playing style. His win over Sipke Ernst in the 2004 Wijk aan Zee C-group which ended with an epaulette mate was an example of the play that was admired by several other chess players. As he matured, Carlsen found that this risky playing style was not as well suited against the world elite. Around 2005 Carlsen was struggling against more experienced grandmasters, and had trouble getting much out of the opening. To progress, Carlsen became a more universal player, capable of handling all sorts of positions well. In the opening, Carlsen has alternated between various opening moves. Instead of specializing in either 1.d4 or 1.e4, Carlsen has alternated between them, thus making it harder for opponents to prepare against him.

Since the announcement that he was coaching Carlsen, Garry Kasparov has repeatedly stated that Carlsen has a positional style, similar to that of past world champions such as Anatoly Karpov, José Capablanca and Vassily Smyslov, rather than the tactical style of Alexander Alekhine, Mikhail Tal and himself.

Rating

In the October 2006 FIDE Elo ratings, Carlsen advanced to world number 22 with a rating of 2698. In the January 2007 ratings he dropped to 2690 and rank 24. In the July 2007 ratings, after a series of strong results, Carlsen advanced to become world number 17 with a rating of 2710. On the January 2008 FIDE rating list he was rated at 2733, and on October 2008 he reached 2786 Elo rating. He was placed sixth in the July 2008 list, but if his Aerosvit result had been included he would have been ranked second. The omission of the Aerosvit result, which finished after the cut-off date for the July 2008 list, caused some controversy.

On 5 September 2008, after winning round 4 in the Bilbao Grand Slam chess championship, Carlsen, still under 18, briefly became number one on the unofficial live ratings list.

Carlsen's September–October 2009 victory in the Nanjing Pearl tournament raised his official rating to 2801, making him at age 18 the youngest player ever to break 2800. The youngest before him was Vladimir Kramnik at age 25. Besides Carlsen, only Kasparov, Topalov, Kramnik, and Anand had achieved a 2800 rating (Levon Aronian later accomplished the feat in October 2010). Carlsen said that he hoped his victory would mark the "beginning of a new era."

After the Tal Memorial (November 2009) he became number one in the unofficial live chess rating list with his new peak rating of 2805.7, 0.6 point over the number 2, Veselin Topalov.

The official FIDE rankings were published on 1 January 2010, and the 16 games played at the Tal Memorial and the London Chess Classic were enough to raise his rating by 8.6 rating points to 2810. This meant that Carlsen started 2010 by being the official (and, at the age of , the youngest ever) world number one, and also the first player from a western nation to reach the top in the FIDE rating list since Bobby Fischer in 1972. The press coverage of this feat included an interview and article in ''Time'' magazine.

Standing on each top 100 FIDE list

40 264626752698 2690 2693 271027142733276527752786 2776 2770 2772 2772 280128102813 2813 2826 2826 2802 2814 2815 2815 2821

Rating list	! Rating	! Games	! Change	! World ranking	! Age
January 2006	2625	|	+55	89	15 years, 01 month
April 2006	|	13	+21	63	15 years, 04 months
July 2006	|	27	+29	31	15 years, 07 months
October 2006	|	46	+23	21	15 years, 10 months
January 2007	|	11	−8	24	16 years, 01 month
April 2007	|	27	+3	22	16 years, 04 months
July 2007	|	19	+17	17	16 years, 07 months
October 2007	|	25	+4	16	16 years, 10 months
January 2008	|	37	+19	13	17 years, 01 month
April 2008	|	27	+32	5	17 years, 04 months
July 2008	|	16	+10	6	17 years, 07 months
October 2008	|	31	+11	4	17 years, 10 months
January 2009	|	17	−10	4	18 years, 01 month
April 2009	|	27	−6	3	18 years, 04 months
July 2009	|	12	+2	3	18 years, 07 months
September 2009	|	10	0	4	18 years, 09 months
November 2009	|	10	+29	2	18 years, 11 months
January 2010	|	16	+9	1	19 years, 01 month
March 2010	|	13	+3	1	19 years, 03 months
May 2010	|	0	0	1	19 years, 05 months
July 2010	|	10	+13	1	19 years, 07 months
September 2010	|	0	0	1	19 years, 09 months
November 2010	|	14	−24	2	19 years, 11 months
January 2011	|	17	+12	1	20 years, 01 month
March 2011	|	13	+1	2	20 years, 03 months
May 2011	|	0	0	2	20 years, 05 months
July 2011	|	10	+6	1	20 years, 07 months

bold, new peak rating

Books and films

Valaker, O; Carlsen, M. (2004). ''Lær sjakk med Magnus''. Gyldendal Norsk Forlag. ISBN 9788205339637.

Agdestein, S. (2004). ''Wonderboy: how Magnus Carlsen became the youngest Chess Grandmaster in the world: the story of the games''. Interchess. ISBN 90-5691-131-7.

''The Prince of Chess, a film about Magnus Carlsen'' (2005) Directed by Øyvind Asbjørnsen.

Beyond chess

Magnus Carlsen modeled for G-Star Raw's Fall/Winter 2010 advertising campaign.

References

External links

Official links

Official website

Official blog

(as per link from "Blog" section of website)

News items and interviews

''Mega Magnus in Wijk aan Zee'', ChessBase, 27 January 2004

''World's youngest grandmaster'', ''Aftenposten'', 26 April 2004

''Magnificent Magnus, the world's youngest grandmaster'', ChessBase, 30 April 2004 – extensive interview

Carlsen and Kasparov in a chat show, YouTube, 18 September 2009 - very impressive how Kasparov is recalling his first encounter with Carlsen in Reykjavik 2004, being on the verge of defeat in game 1, feeling gruesome in hindsight

''Magnus Carlsen: The 19-Year-Old King of Chess'', Time.com, 29 September 2009 – interview

''A Bold Opening for Chess Player Magnus Carlsen'', Time.com, 11 January 2010

''Magnus Carlsen on his chess career'', ChessBase, 15 March 2010 – English translation of ''Spiegel'' interview

''The Prince's Gambit—A chess star emerges for the post-computer age'' (abstract), The New Yorker, 21 March 20011

Category:1990 births Category:Chess grandmasters Category:Living people Category:Norwegian chess players Category:People from Bærum Category:People from Tønsberg

ar:ماغنوس كارلسن zh-min-nan:Magnus Carlsen br:Magnus Carlsen bg:Магнус Карлсен ca:Magnus Carlsen cs:Magnus Carlsen da:Magnus Carlsen de:Magnus Carlsen et:Magnus Carlsen el:Μάγνους Κάρλσεν es:Magnus Carlsen fa:ماگنوس کارلسن fo:Magnus Carlsen fr:Magnus Carlsen id:Magnus Carlsen it:Magnus Carlsen he:מגנוס קרלסן ka:მაგნუს კარლსენი lb:Magnus Carlsen lt:Magnus Carlsen hu:Magnus Carlsen mk:Магнус Карлсен mr:मॅग्नस कार्लसन nl:Magnus Carlsen no:Magnus Carlsen nn:Magnus Carlsen nds:Magnus Carlsen pl:Magnus Carlsen pt:Magnus Carlsen ru:Карлсен, Магнус simple:Magnus Carlsen sr:Магнус Карлсен fi:Magnus Carlsen sv:Magnus Carlsen tr:Magnus Carlsen uk:Магнус Карлсен vi:Magnus Carlsen zh:馬格努斯·卡爾森

Coordinates	40°26′30″N80°00′00″N
Name	Magnús Scheving
Fullname	Magnús Örn Eyjólfsson
Altname	Magnús Scheving, Maggi
Country
Birth date	November 10, 1964
Birth place	Borgarnes, Iceland
Residence	Seltjarnarnes, Iceland
Spouse	Halldóra Blöndal (??–??)Ragnheiður Melsteð (1989–present)
Medaltemplates	}}

Magnús Örn Eyjólfsson Scheving was born 10 November 1964 to Þórveig Hjartardóttir and Eyjólfur Magnússon Scheving. He is an Icelandic writer, producer, entrepreneur, and a famous athlete. He is the creator and co-star of the children's television show ''LazyTown''.

Career

In 1992 he became the Icelandic Men's Individual Champion in aerobic gymnastics. In 1993, he became the Scandinavian champion, and was the European champion twice in 1994 and 1995. He was voted Athlete of the Year in Iceland in 1994. He is the CEO, creator, and co-founder of LazyTown Entertainment. This company produces books, videos, games, and sporting goods to help promote fitness and a healthy lifestyle to children. He is also creator of the show ''LazyTown'' (''Latibær'' in Iceland), where he plays Sportacus (known as Íþróttaálfurinn in Icelandic).

In 2006, Magnús received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Icelandic Edda Award ceremonies for his work as founder and creator of the ''LazyTown'' franchise. The President of Iceland presented the award to him.

Scheving starred in the 2010 film ''The Spy Next Door''.

Personal life

He is married to Ragnheiður Melsteð. Magnús and Ragnheiður have two children. Magnús has another daughter from a previous relationship. He has two grandchildren. Magnús' birth name was Eyjólfsson but he later chose to adopt his grandfather's last name, Scheving. He has a younger brother and an older sister. Magnús currently resides in Seltjarnarnes, Reykjavík with his wife and two children. Magnús grew up in the small town of Borgarnes in Iceland. At 5 years old he had his first job as a telephone exchange messenger boy for Borgarnes. In his 20s, he made a bet with a friend, Fjölnir Þorgeirsson (an Icelandic snooker champion), to master a particular sport in three years. Magnús chose snooker for Fjölnir and Fjölnir chose aerobics for Magnús. Magnús won that bet.

References

External links

Magnus Scheving Lazytown Interview (2008)

Dad in profile – Magnus Scheving – aka Sportacus from LazyTown (July 2008)

"Mr Motivator" ''Times Online'' article on Magnús Scheving (November 4, 2006)

Magnús Scheving Official Site

Category:1964 births Category:Icelandic aerobic gymnasts Category:Icelandic television personalities Category:Living people Category:People from Reykjavík

de:Magnús Scheving es:Magnús Scheving is:Magnús Scheving it:Magnús Scheving no:Magnús Scheving pl:Magnús Scheving pt:Magnús Scheving ru:Шевинг, Магнус sr:Magnus Ševing sv:Magnús Scheving

Anton Bruckner (September 04, 1824October 11, 1896) was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The former are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length. Bruckner's compositions helped to define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their dissonances, unprepared modulations, and roving harmonies.

Unlike other radicals, such as Richard Wagner or Hugo Wolf who fit the ''enfant terrible'' mould, Bruckner showed extreme humility before other musicians, Wagner in particular. This apparent dichotomy between Bruckner the man and Bruckner the composer hampers efforts to describe his life in a way that gives a straightforward context for his music.

His works, the symphonies in particular, had detractors, most notably the influential Austrian critic Eduard Hanslick, and other supporters of Johannes Brahms, who pointed to their large size, use of repetition, and Bruckner's propensity to revise many of his works, often with the assistance of colleagues, and his apparent indecision about which versions he preferred. On the other hand, Bruckner was greatly admired by subsequent composers, including his friend Gustav Mahler, who described him as "half simpleton, half God".

Biography

Early life

Anton Bruckner was born in Ansfelden (then a village, now a suburb of Linz) on 4 September 1824. His father was a village schoolmaster, as was his grandfather. It was a meagerly paid but respected position in the rural environment. Music belonged to the school curriculum, and Bruckner's father was his first music teacher. Bruckner learned to play the organ early as a child. He entered school when he was six, and proved to be a hard-working student, and was promoted to upper class early. While studying, Bruckner also helped his father in teaching the other children. After Bruckner received his confirmation in 1833, Bruckner's father decided to send him to another school in Hörsching. The schoolmaster, Johann Baptist Weiß, was a music enthusiast and respected organist. Here, Bruckner completed his school education and learned to play the organ excellently. He also wrote his first composition, ''Vier Präludien in Es-Dur für Orgel'' for the organ. However, biographers do not regard the work as exceptional; in his youth, Bruckner was gifted, but not a genius. When his father became ill, Anton returned to Ansfelden to help him in his work.

Teacher's education

His father died in 1837, when Anton was 13 years old. The teacher's position and house were given to a successor, and Bruckner was sent to the Augustinian monastery in St. Florian to become a choirboy. In addition to choir practice, his education included violin and organ lessons. Bruckner was in awe of the monastery's great organ, which was built during the late baroque era and improved in 1837, and he sometimes played it during church services. Later, the organ was to be called the "Bruckner Organ". Despite his musical abilities, Bruckner's mother decided that her son's future profession remained a teacher, and in 1840 Bruckner was sent to a teacher seminar in Linz. After completing the seminar with an excellent grade, he was sent as a teacher's assistant to a school in Windhaag. The living standards and pay were horrible, and Bruckner was constantly humiliated by his superior, teacher Franz Fuchs. Despite the difficult situation, Bruckner never complained or rebelled; a belief of inferiority was to remain one of Bruckner's main personal characteristics during his whole life. Prelate Michael Arneth noticed Bruckner's bad situation in Windhaag and awarded him a teacher's assistant position in St. Florian, sending him to Kronstorf an der Enns for two years.

Organist in St. Florian

In 1848 he was appointed an organist in St. Florian and in 1851 this was made a regular position. In St Florian, most of the repertoire consisted of the music of Michael Haydn, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and Franz Joseph Aumann. In 1855, he took up a counterpoint course with Simon Sechter. In 1861 he studied further with Otto Kitzler, who introduced him to the music of Richard Wagner, which Bruckner studied extensively from 1863 onwards. Bruckner continued his studies to the age of 40. Broad fame and acceptance did not come until he was over 60. A devout Catholic who loved to drink beer, Bruckner was out of step with his contemporaries. In 1861 he had already made the acquaintance of Franz Liszt who, like Bruckner, had a strong, Catholic religious faith and who first and foremost was a harmonic innovator, initiating the new German school together with Wagner. Soon after Bruckner had ended his studies under Sechter and Kitzler, he wrote his first mature work, the Mass in D Minor.

The Vienna period

In 1868, after Sechter had died, Bruckner hesitantly accepted Sechter's post as a teacher of music theory at the Vienna Conservatory, during which time he concentrated most of his energy on writing symphonies. These symphonies, however, were poorly received, at times considered "wild" and "nonsensical". He later accepted a post at the Vienna University in 1875, where he tried to make music theory a part of the curriculum. Overall, he was unhappy in Vienna, which was musically dominated by the critic Eduard Hanslick. At the time there was a feud between advocates of the music of Wagner and Brahms; by aligning himself with Wagner, Bruckner made an unintentional enemy out of Hanslick. However, he was not without supporters; ''Deutsche Zeitung'''s music critic Theodor Helm, and famous conductors such as Arthur Nikisch and Franz Schalk constantly tried to bring his music to the public, and for this purpose proposed 'improvements' for making Bruckner's music more acceptable to the public. While Bruckner allowed these changes, he also made sure in his will to bequeath his original scores to the Vienna National Library, confident of their musical validity.

In addition to his symphonies, Bruckner wrote masses, motets and other sacred choral works, and a few chamber works, including a string quintet. Unlike his romantic symphonies, some of Bruckner's choral works are often conservative and contrapuntal in style; however the Te Deum, Helgoland, Psalm 150 and at least one Mass demonstrate innovative and radical uses of chromaticism.

Biographers generally characterize Bruckner as a "simple" provincial man, and many biographers have complained that there is huge discrepancy between Bruckner's life and his work. For example, Karl Grebe said: "his life doesn't tell anything about his work, and his work doesn't tell anything about his life, that's the uncomfortable fact any biography must start from." Numerous anecdotes abound as to Bruckner's dogged pursuit of his chosen craft and his humble acceptance of the fame that eventually came his way. Once, after a rehearsal of his Fourth Symphony, the well-meaning Bruckner tipped the conductor Hans Richter: "When the symphony was over," Richter related, "Bruckner came to me, his face beaming with enthusiasm and joy. I felt him press a coin into my hand. 'Take this' he said, 'and drink a glass of beer to my health.'" Richter, of course, accepted the coin, a Maria Theresa thaler, and wore it on his watch-chain ever after.

Bruckner was a renowned organist in his day, impressing audiences in France in 1869, and England in 1871, giving six recitals on a new Henry Willis organ at Royal Albert Hall in London and five more at the Crystal Palace. Though he wrote no major works for the organ, his improvisation sessions sometimes yielded ideas for the symphonies. Indeed, the orchestration in his symphonies often involves abrupt switches and call-and-response between multiple groups of instruments, much like switching manuals on an organ. He taught organ performance at the Conservatory; among his students were Hans Rott and Franz Schmidt. Gustav Mahler, who called Bruckner his "forerunner", attended the conservatory at this time (Walter n.d.).

Bruckner never married; he was attracted to teenage girls, who turned down the proposals of the older man. One such was the daughter of a friend, called Louise; in his grief he is believed to have written the cantata "Entsagen" (Renunciation). His affection for teenage girls led to an accusation of impropriety where he taught music, and while he was exonerated, he decided to concentrate on teaching boys afterwards. His calendar for 1874 details the names of girls who appealed to him, and the list of such girls in all his diaries was very long. In 1880 he fell for a 17-year-old peasant girl in the cast of the Oberammergau Passion Play. His interest in girls appears to have been based on the assumed virtue retained through their being young, and lasted as long as they seemed worthy of marriage; he feared sin. His unsuccessful proposals to teenage girls continued into his seventies; one potential relationship that might have been suitable when he was older came to nothing because the girl would not convert to Catholicism.

In July 1886, the Emperor decorated him with the Order of Franz Joseph.

Bruckner died in Vienna in 1896, of natural causes. He is buried in the crypt of St. Florian monastery church, right below his favorite organ.

The Anton Bruckner Private University for Music, Drama, and Dance, an institution of higher education in Linz, close to his native Ansfelden, was named after him in 1932 ("Bruckner Conservatory Linz" until 2004). The Bruckner Orchester Linz was also named in his honor.

Works

Sometimes Bruckner's works are referred to by WAB numbers, from the ''Werkverzeichnis Anton Bruckner'', a catalogue of Bruckner's works edited by Renate Grasberger.

The revision issue has generated controversy. A common explanation for the multiple versions is that Bruckner was willing to revise his work on the basis of harsh, uninformed criticism from his colleagues. "The result of such advice was to awaken immediately all the insecurity in the non-musical part of Bruckner's personality," musicologist Deryck Cooke writes. "Lacking all self-assurance in such matters, he felt obliged to bow to the opinions of his friends, 'the experts,' to permit ... revisions and even to help make them in some cases." This explanation was widely accepted when it was championed by Bruckner scholar Robert Haas, who was the chief editor of the first critical editions of Bruckner's works published by the International Bruckner Society; it continues to be found in the majority of program notes and biographical sketches concerning Bruckner. Hass' work was endorsed by the Nazis and so fell out of favour after the war as the Allies enforced denazification. Hass' rival Leopold Nowak was appointed to produce a whole new critical edition of Bruckner's works. He and others such as Benjamin Korstvedt and conductor Leon Botstein argued that Haas' explanation is at best idle speculation, at worst a shady justification of Haas' own editorial decisions. Also, it has been pointed out that Bruckner often started work on a symphony just days after finishing the one before. As Cooke writes, "In spite of continued opposition and criticism, and many well-meaning exhortations to caution from his friends, he looked neither to right nor left, but simply got down to work on the next symphony." Unfortunately the matter of Bruckner's authentic texts and the reasons for his changes to them remains politicised and uncomfortable.

Symphonies

Style

Bruckner's symphonies are all in four movements (though he was unable to complete the finale of the Ninth), starting with a modified sonata allegro form, a slow movement, a scherzo in 3/4 time, and a modified sonata allegro form finale. (In the Eighth, Ninth, and the first version of the Second, the slow movements and scherzo are reversed. The Fourth features a scherzo in which the outer sections are in 2/4 meter, not the customary 3/4.) They are scored for a fairly standard orchestra of woodwinds in pairs, four horns, two or three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani and strings. The later symphonies increase this complement, but not by much. Notable is the use of Wagner tubas in his last three symphonies. With the exception of ''Symphony No. 4'', none of Bruckner's symphonies has subtitles, and most of the nicknames were not thought up by the composer. Bruckner's works are trademarked with powerful codas and grand finales, as well as the frequent use of unison passages and orchestral ''tutti''. His style of orchestral writing was criticized by his Viennese contemporaries, but by the middle of the 20th century musicologists recognized that Bruckner's orchestration was modeled after the sound of his primary instrument, the pipe organ.

Nicholas Temperley writes in the ''New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980)'' that Bruckner

alone succeeded in creating a new school of symphonic writing.... Some have classified him as a conservative, some as a radical. Really he was neither, or alternatively was a fusion of both.... [H]is music, though Wagnerian in its orchestration and its in its huge rising and falling periods, patently has its roots in older styles. Bruckner took Beethoven's Ninth Symphony as his starting-point.... The introduction to the first movement, beginning mysteriously and climbing slowly with fragments of the first theme to the gigantic full statement of that theme, was taken over by Bruckner; so was the awe-inspiring coda of the first movement. The scherzo and slow movement, with their alternation of melodies, are models for Bruckner's spacious middle movements, while the finale with a grand culminating hymn is a feature of almost every Bruckner symphony.

Bruckner is the first composer since Schubert about whom it is possible to make such generalizations. His symphonies deliberately followed a pattern, each one building on the achievements of its predecessors.... His melodic and harmonic style changed little, and it had as much of Schubert in it as of Wagner.... His technique in the development and transformation of themes, learnt from Beethoven, Liszt and Wagner, was unsurpassed, and he was almost the equal of Brahms in the art of melodic variation.

Cooke adds, also in the ''New Grove'',

Despite its general debt to Beethoven and Wagner, the "Bruckner Symphony" is a unique conception, not only because of the individuality of its spirit and its materials, but even more because of the absolute originality of its formal processes. At first, these processes seemed so strange and unprecedented that they were taken as evidence of sheer incompetence.... Now it is recognized that Bruckner's unorthodox structural methods were inevitable.... Bruckner created a new and monumental type of symphonic organism, which abjured the tense, dynamic continuity of Beethoven, and the broad, fluid continuity of Wagner, in order to express something profoundly different from either composer, something elemental and metaphysical.

In a concert review, Bernard Holland described parts of the first movements of Bruckner's sixth and seventh symphonies as follows: "There is the same slow, broad introduction, the drawn-out climaxes that grow, pull back and then grow some more – a sort of musical coitus interruptus."

In the 2001 Second Edition of the ''New Grove'', Mark Evan Bonds called the Bruckner symphonies "monumental in scope and design, combining lyricism with an inherently polyphonic design.... Bruckner favored an approach to large-scale form that relied more on large-scale thematic and harmonic juxtaposition. Over the course of his output, one senses an ever-increasing interest in cyclic integration that culminates in his masterpiece, the Symphony No. 8 in C minor, a work whose final page integrates the main themes of all four movements simultaneously."

Works

Otto Kitzler, Bruckner's last composition teacher, set him three final tasks as the climax of his studies: a choral work (Psalm 112), an overture, and a symphony. The latter, completed in 1863, was then Bruckner's Study Symphony in F minor. Bruckner later rejected this work, but he did not destroy it. While it certainly reminds one of earlier composers such as Robert Schumann, it undeniably also bears the hallmarks of the later Bruckner style. Kitzler simply commented that the work was "not very inspired". It was first performed in 1924 and not published until 1973 and is occasionally listed as ''Symphony No. 00.''

Bruckner's Symphony No. 1 in C minor (sometimes called by Bruckner "das kecke Beserl", roughly translated as "the saucy maid") was completed in 1866, but the original text of this symphony was not reconstructed until 1998. Instead, it is commonly known in two versions, the so-called ''Linz Version'' which is based mainly on rhythmical revisions made in 1877, and the completely revised ''Vienna Version'' of 1891, which begins to reveal his mature style, e.g. Symphony No. 8.

Next was the so-called Symphony No. 0 in D minor of 1869, a work which was so harshly criticized that Bruckner retracted it completely, and it was not performed at all during his lifetime, hence his choice for the number of the symphony.

His next attempt was a sketch of the first movement to a Symphony in B-flat major, but he did no further work on it afterwards. This sketch can be heared on John Berky's site.

The Symphony No. 2 in C minor of 1872 was revised in 1873, 1876, 1877 and 1892. It is sometimes called the ''Symphony of Pauses'' for its dramatic use of whole-orchestra rests, which accentuate the form of the piece. In the Carragan edition of the 1872 version, the Scherzo is placed second and the Adagio third. It is in the same key as No. 1.

Bruckner presented his Symphony No. 3 in D minor, written in 1873, to Wagner along with the Second, asking which of them he might dedicate to him. Wagner chose the Third, and Bruckner sent him a fair copy soon later, which is why the original version of the ''Wagner Symphony'' is preserved so well despite revisions in 1874, 1876, 1877 and 1888/1889. One thing that helped Wagner choose which symphony to accept the dedication was that the 3rd contains quotations from Wagner's music dramas, such as ''Die Walküre'' and ''Lohengrin''. These quotations were taken out in revised versions.

Bruckner's first great success was his Symphony No. 4 in E flat major, more commonly known as the ''Romantic Symphony'', the only epithet applied to a symphony by the composer himself. The 1874 version has been seldom played and success came only after major revisions in 1878, including a completely new scherzo and finale, and again in 1880/1881, once again with a completely rewritten finale. This version was premiered in 1881 (under the conductor Hans Richter). Bruckner made more minor revisions of this symphony in 1886–1888.

Bruckner's Symphony No. 5 in B flat major crowns his most productive era of symphony-writing, finished at the beginning of 1876. Until recently we knew only the thoroughly revised version of 1878. In 2008 the original concepts of this symphony have been edited and performed by Akira Naito with the Tokyo New City Orchestra. Many consider this symphony to be Bruckner's lifetime masterpiece in the area of counterpoint. For example, the Finale is a combined fugue and sonata form movement: the first theme (characterized by the downward leap of an octave) appears in the exposition as a four-part fugue in the strings and the concluding theme of the exposition is presented first as a chorale in the brass, then as a four part fugue in the development, and culminating in a double fugue with the first theme at the recapitulation; additionally, the coda combines not only these two themes but also the main theme of the first movement. Bruckner never heard it played by an orchestra.

Symphony No. 6 in A major, written in 1879–1881, is an oft-neglected work; whereas the Bruckner rhythm (two quarters plus a quarter triplet or vice versa) is an important part of his previous symphonies, it pervades this work, particularly in the first movement, making it particularly difficult to perform.

Symphony No. 7 in E major was the most beloved of Bruckner's symphonies with audiences of the time, and is still popular. It was written 1881–1883 and revised in 1885. During the time that Bruckner began work on this symphony, he was aware that Wagner's death was imminent, and so the Adagio is slow mournful music for Wagner, and for the first time in Bruckner's oeuvre, the Wagner tuba is included in the orchestra.

Bruckner began composition of his Symphony No. 8 in C minor in 1884. In 1887 Bruckner sent the work to Hermann Levi, the conductor who had led his Seventh to great success. Levi, who had said Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony was the greatest symphony written after Beethoven, believed that the Eighth was a confusing jumble. Bruckner was devastated by Levi's assessment. Bruckner revised the work, sometimes with the aid of Franz Schalk, and completed this new version in 1890. Cooke writes that "Bruckner not only recomposed [the Eighth]... but greatly improved it in a number of ways.... This is the one symphony that Bruckner did not fully achieve in his first definite version, to which there can be no question of going back."

The final accomplishment of Bruckner's life was to be his Symphony No. 9 in D minor which he started in August 1887, and which he dedicated "To God the Beloved." The first three movements were completed by the end of 1894, the Adagio alone taking 18 months to complete. Work was delayed by the composer's poor health and by his compulsion to revise his early symphonies, and by the time of his death in 1896 he had not finished the last movement. The first three movements remained unperformed until their premiere in Vienna (in Ferdinand Löwe's version) on 11 February 1903.

Bruckner suggested using his Te Deum as a Finale, which would complete the homage to Beethoven's Ninth symphony (also in D minor). The problem was that the Te Deum is in C major, while the 9th Symphony is D minor, and, although Bruckner began sketching a transition from the Adagio key of E major to the triumphant key of C major, he did not pursue the idea. There have been several attempts to complete these sketches and prepare them for performance, as well as completions of his later sketches for an instrumental Finale, but only the first three movements of the symphony are usually performed.

Sacred choral works

Bruckner wrote a Te Deum, settings of five Psalms (including Psalm 150 in the 1890s), about forty motets (among them settings of ''Christus factus est pro nobis'' and ''Ave Maria''), and at least seven Masses. His Requiem in D minor of 1849 is the earliest work Bruckner himself considered worthy of preservation. It shows the clear influence of Mozart's Requiem (also in D minor) and similar works of Michael Haydn. His early Masses were usually short Austrian ''Landmessen'' for use in local churches and did not always set all the numbers of the ordinary. The three Masses Bruckner wrote in the 1860s and revised later on in his life are more often performed. The Masses numbered 1 in D minor and 3 in F minor are for solo singers, chorus and orchestra, while No. 2 in E minor is for chorus and a small group of wind instruments, and was written in an attempt to meet the Cecilians halfway. The Cecilians wanted to rid church music of instruments entirely. No. 3 was clearly meant for concert, rather than liturgical performance, and it is the only one of his Masses in which he set the first line of the Gloria, "Gloria in excelsis Deo", and of the Credo, "Credo in unum Deum", to music. (In concert performances of the other Masses, these lines are intoned by a tenor soloist in the way a priest would, with a line of plainsong).

Other music

As a young man Bruckner sang in men's choirs and wrote music for them. This music is rarely performed. Biographer Derek Watson characterizes the pieces for men's choir as being "of little concern to the non-German listener". Of thirty such pieces, ''Helgoland'' is the only secular vocal work Bruckner thought worthy enough to bequeath to the Vienna National Library.

The Overture in G minor of 1862 (revised in 1863) is occasionally included in recordings of the symphonies, and it is one of the works Bruckner wrote during his apprentice with Otto Kitzler. At that time he also wrote, as orchestration exercises, a March in D minor and three short orchestral pieces. These works already show hints of Bruckner's emerging style.

A String Quartet in C minor was discovered decades after Bruckner's death, but is only of interest as a student composition. The later String Quintet in F major, contemporaneous with the Fifth and Sixth symphonies, has been frequently performed.

There is an orchestral Symphonic Prelude that is sometimes attributed to Bruckner and sometimes to Mahler. It was discovered in the Vienna National Library in 1974 in a piano duet transcription and later orchestrated by Albrecht Gürsching, who did not know the original orchestral score (published by Doblinger, Vienna). It is likely the work of one of Bruckner's students.

Bruckner's Two Aequale for three trombones is a solemn, brief work.

He also wrote Lancer-Quadrille for piano. Among his most unusual and evocative compositions is the choral ''Abendzauber'' (1878) for tenor, yodelers and four alpine horns. It was never performed in Bruckner's lifetime.

Bruckner never wrote an opera, and as much as he was a fan of Wagner's music dramas, he was uninterested in drama. In 1893 he thought about writing an opera called ''Astra'' based on a novel by Gertrud Bollé-Hellmund. Although he attended performances of Wagner's operas, he was much more interested in the music than the plot. After seeing Wagner's ''Götterdämmerung'', he asked: "Tell me, why did they burn the woman at the end?" Nor did Bruckner ever write an oratorio.

Reception in the 20th century

Because of the long duration and vast orchestral canvas of much of his music, Bruckner's popularity has greatly benefited from the introduction of long-playing media and from improvements in recording technology.

Decades after his death, the Nazis strongly approved of Bruckner's music because his music was considered by them to be an expression of the zeitgeist of the German volk, and Hitler even consecrated a bust of Bruckner in a widely photographed ceremony in 1937 at Regensburg's Walhalla temple. Bruckner's music was among the most popular in Nazi Germany and the Adagio from his 7th Symphony was broadcast by the German radio (Deutscher Reichsrundfunk) upon announcing the news of Hitler's death on 1 May 1945. However this did not hurt Bruckner's standing in the postwar media, and several movies and TV productions in Europe and the United States have used excerpts from Bruckner's music ever since the 1950s, as they already did in the 1930s. Nor did the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra ever ban Bruckner's music as they have Wagner's, even recording with Zubin Mehta the Eighth Symphony.

Bruckner's symphonic works, much maligned in Vienna in his lifetime, now have an important place in the tradition and musical repertoire of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

The life of Bruckner was portrayed in Jan Schmidt-Garre's 1995 film ''Bruckner's Decision'', which focuses on his recovery in the Austrian spa. Ken Russell's TV movie ''The Strange Affliction of Anton Bruckner'', starring Peter Mackriel, also fictionalizes Bruckner's real-life stay at a sanatorium because of obsessive-compulsive disorder (or 'numeromania' as it was then described).

In addition, "Visconti used the music of Bruckner for his ''Senso'' (1953), its plot concerned with the Austrian invasion of Italy in the 1860s." The score by Carl Davis for ''Ben-Hur'' takes "inspiration from Bruckner to achieve reverence in biblical scenes."

Conductors

Among the conductors most associated with the works of Bruckner, going in chronological order, the first to be mentioned should perhaps be Bruno Walter, who acted as an "ambassador" for Bruckner in the United States; made celebrated recordings of symphonies 4, 7 and 9 late in his career; wrote an essay on "Bruckner and Mahler". Otto Klemperer made one of the first two recordings of Bruckner (the adagio of the Eighth Symphony from 1924). Wilhelm Furtwängler made his conducting debut with the Ninth Symphony in 1906 and conducted Bruckner constantly throughout his career.

Hans Knappertsbusch was unusual in continuing to perform the first published editions of Bruckner's symphonies even after the critical editions became available. Eugen Jochum recorded Bruckner's numbered symphonies multiple times, as did Herbert von Karajan. Günter Wand, in addition to audio recordings, also made video recordings of his Bruckner concerts. Georg Tintner received acclaim late in life for his complete cycle of recordings on the ''Naxos'' label.

The Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache did not conduct all of Bruckner's symphonies, but those that he did conduct resulted in readings of great breadth, possibly the longest accounts of the works on record. This is especially true in the case of the Eighth Symphony, which lasts over 100 minutes. Although he never made commercial recordings of Bruckner, several recordings of concert performances were released after his death.

Eliahu Inbal recorded an early cycle which featured some previously unrecorded versions. For instance, Inbal was the first conductor to record the 1st version of Bruckner's 3rd, 4th, and the completed finale to the 9th. Daniel Barenboim recorded 2 complete cycles of Bruckner's symphonies, one with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the other with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Sir Georg Solti also recorded a complete cycle with Chicago. Bernard Haitink recorded all of Bruckner's numbered symphonies with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, and re-recorded several symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic. Carlo Maria Giulini made a speciality of Bruckner's late symphonies. Giuseppe Sinopoli was in the process of recording all Bruckner's symphonies at the time of his death.

More recently Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Christian Thielemann, Mariss Jansons and Benjamin Zander have recorded several Bruckner symphonies. Leon Botstein is the most recent conductor to record inauthentic versions of Bruckner's symphonies (e.g., 1894 Schalk version of the Fifth)

See also

Bruckner Orchestra Linz

International Bruckner Society

List of Austrians in music

List of Austrians

The Bruckner Problem

Media

References

;Notes ;Sources

Bruckner, Anton. Symphony No. 8/2, C minor, 1890 version. Edited by Leopold Nowak. New York: Eulenberg, 1994.

Gilliam, Bryan, ''The annexation of Anton Bruckner: Nazi revisionism and the politics of appropriation'', in ''Bruckner Studies'' edited by Timothy Jackson and Paul Hawkshaw.

Korstvedt, Benjamin M. Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 19.

ed. Stanley Sadie, ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (London: Macmillan, 1980), 20 vols. ISBN 0-333-23111-2.

ed. Stanley Sadie, ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition'' (London: Macmillan, 2001), 29 vols. ISBN 0-333-60800-3.

External links

The life of Anton Bruckner in Chord and Discord, American Bruckner Society, 1940. A very well-written biography, with references to the conflict with the Hanslick/Brahms field, and 19th century Austrian culture and society.

The Bruckner Journal devoted to Anton Bruckner, edited by Ken Ward, caters for lay enthusiasts, musicians and academics. Produced in the UK

Bruckner Discography edited by John F. Berky – Detailed listing recordings of Anton Bruckner's orchestral works. Also includes articles and free downloads

Extensive article (35 pages) by Aart van der Wal on Bruckner's Symphony No. 9, unfinished finale

Classical Net – Bruckner Bio, Recordings, and Essays

UV.es – Anton Bruckner Bibliography

Detailed information on the various editions and revisions of Bruckner's symphonies

Discography and List of Works

MPG.de

Bruckner biography, 19th century Austrian culture and society

Bruckner MIDIs at Classical Archives

Homepage for Bruckner's House museum (Ger)

The Music of Eternity by David B. Hart, ''First Things''

Category:1824 births Category:1896 deaths Category:People from Linz-Land District * Category:Austrian Roman Catholics Category:Austrian composers Category:Romantic composers Category:Viennese composers Category:Walhalla enshrinees Category:Recipients of the Order of Franz Joseph Category:Austrian music theorists

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