Biography
Jensen produced no standout individual work, yet every one of his piano pieces conveyed a refined sensibility and a genuine rapport with the romantic ethos by fusing the early idioms of Schumann, Chopin, and Liszt. He sustained warm, mutually supportive ties with cellist Christian Kellermann—his partner on Scandinavian concert tours—as well as with Gade, Hartmann, Bulow, Brahms, Berlioz, and other colleagues, to whom he inscribed numerous compositions and dedications. Persistent throat and lung trouble marked his final fifteen years, yet he maintained a brief schedule of performances while continuing to compose. He helped secure the Dresden premiere of Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger” and, earlier in his career, served as Kapellmeister in Posen, Bromberg, and Copenhagen. Jensen possessed a rare gift for rendering emotional states and human feeling into lyrical song, above all in his lieder and ballads, but he showed little aptitude for extended forms and could not preserve that romantic character in choral or orchestral writing.