Bernhard Crusell

One night, the four-year-old Berndt was sitting in the street, leaning against a wall, on top of the world with admiration for the sweet melodies.

His parents, who had been looking for their son for a long time, scolded him severely, but this could not stop the boy from returning to his favourite spot the next evening.

This time he got a beating for his disobedience, but as it was to no avail, they left him to his "craze", confident that he would come back home as soon as the flute went silent...[5] When Crusell was eight, the family moved to Perttula,[6] the rural village of Nurmijärvi about 23 miles north of Helsinki.

[8] In 1788, when he was thirteen, another family friend, aware of the young man's natural ability, took him to see Major O. Wallenstjerna at Sveaborg (Finnish: Viapori).

Wallenstjerna, impressed with Crusell's playing, recruited him as a volunteer member of the Sveaborg military band and gave him a place to live with his own family.

In 1792, at age sixteen, he received an appointment as the director of the regimental band, and in 1793 became principal clarinet with the Hovkapellet (Royal Court Orchestra), which was directed by his composition teacher, the German composer Abbé Vogler.

In 1798 he received financial assistance which enabled him to live in Berlin for a few months and study with the well-known German clarinetist Franz Tausch (1762–1817).

Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden, anxious to keep Crusell in the royal orchestra, denied a petition for an extension of leave and as a positive inducement made him chief conductor of the bodyguard regiment bands.

[17] Carl Abraham Mankell (1802–1868), music critic of Svenska Tidningen (Swedish News), admired Crusell's playing for the roundness of his tone and its evenness in quality throughout the range of the instrument.

"[3] Between 1791 and 1799 Crusell studied music theory and composition with Abbé Vogler and another German teacher, Daniel Boritz [sv], when Böritz was resident in Stockholm.

[3][8] From 1818 to 1837 during the summers he conducted military bands in Linköping, providing them with arrangements of marches and overtures by Rossini, Spohr, and Weber and composing pieces for male choir.

His translation of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, first performed in 1821, resulted in his induction into the Geatish Society, an association of literary academics in Sweden.

In 1837 he was awarded a gold medal by the Swedish Academy and was inducted into the Order of Vasa, for service to the state and society.