Fabritius, Ernst

(b Vyborg rural district, 2 July 1842; d Lapinjrvi, 8 Oct

1899). Finnish composer and violinist. He studied the violin with
F.R. Faltin in Vyborg, and from 1857 to 1861 attended the Leipzig
Conservatory where he studied the violin, piano and composition.
Fabritius gave concerts in Finland and Sweden, and for some
years worked as a violinist in a theatre orchestra in Helsinki. In
1864 he gave up his promising musical career and worked first as
a civil servant and later in agriculture, though he still composed
and played chamber music. Fabritiuss main work is his Romantic
and virtuoso Violin Concerto (1878), which he performed in
Helsinki in 1881. His orchestral works, which include a symphony
(1878, lost) and overtures, show the influence of Schumann and
Mendelssohn, and his piano pieces, the suite Snflingor (1859)
and the Phantasie, that of Chopin. He also wrote a string quartet
(1860) and pieces for violin and cello.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Salmenhaara, ed.: Suomalaisia sveltji [Finnish
composers] (Helsinki, 1994), 724
SEIJA LAPPALAINEN