To this point, Grieg had been primarily immersed in the Danish language and surrounded by Danish traditions rather than Norwegian. In the summer of 1864, he stayed with Ole Bull and was moved by his enthusiasm for Norwegian music and culture. He also met Richard Nordraak, the composer of what would become the Norwegian national anthem. From then on he was dedicated to Romantic nationalism and his first piece to demonstrate its influence was Humoresker for piano, created in 1865. Grieg joined Nordraak and others in forming a society to promote Scandinavian music, and he helped to open the Norwegian Academy of Music in 1867. By this time he had become recognized as one of the country’s foremost young musicians and his nationalism was evident in the titles of the pieces he composed.

Grieg, his wife, and their new daughter went to Denmark in June of 1868 for the milder climate and it was there that he composed the Piano Concerto in a minor. He was now making a comfortable living composing, performing, and conducting. In January of 1874 he received an invitation from Henrik Ibsen to compose the incidental music for his play Peer Gynt. The project took longer than Grieg expected because he found it a “terribly difficult play for which to write music,” but it was completed in July 1875 with the first performance taking place in 1876. His reputation as a composer had increased both at home and abroad, and he continued to be in demand for concert tours on which he would conduct and play piano, performing only his own works. He received honorary doctorates from Cambridge and Oxford and membership in the Institut de France. His health had always been poor because of pulmonary problems, but he continued to take concert tours. Grieg was about to leave for England when he was ordered to the hospital and died the next day. Norway held a national funeral, and his body was cremated and placed in an urn on an overlooking the fjord at Troldhaugen.

Grieg is known for his lyric pieces that draw on folk music and Romantic traditions. His works are rich in chromatic harmonies with rhythmic and melodic folk elements. A miniaturist, he is especially important for his piano works, songs, and chamber music. Grieg suffered the same fate of many nationalistic composers being criticized by foreign critics, especially Germans, as being provincial, but his music remains an audience favorite.

Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, op. 46
by Edvard Grieg
Peer Gynt is the best known of Grieg’s large works, created as incidental music to Ibsen’s play. The two concert suites include only 8 of the original 26 numbers and their order is independent of the sequence of events in the play. The popularity of the work is partially due to its basis in Norwegian fairy tales. Peer Gynt was a legendary 18th century huntsman. This work did more than any other to expand the composer’s international reputation.

One of the more recognizable pieces from the suite, Morning Mood, commonly evokes images of a spring morning in the Norwegian mountains. It is intended instead to represent the sun rising over the Sahara Desert. Peer has been away for many years on the coast of Morocco and, after being robbed and left alone on the shore, he awakes with the sun. In The Death of Ase, Peer goes to visit his mother and finds her dying. He harnesses her chair to the bed for an imaginary journey to the castle “east of the sun and west of the moon” where St. Peter will welcome her. This piece for muted strings focuses on a single rhythmic pattern using rising and falling phrases. For Anitra’s Dance, Peer tries to seduce Anitra, the daughter of a Bedouin chief, but she gets away and leaves him. The music is a seductive waltz scored for strings and triangle.

In the most well known selection from this suite, In the Hall of the Mountain King, Peer comes across the daughter of the troll king. Together they ride into the hall on the back of a pig and are greeted by the gathered trolls who call for Peer’s blood because of his supposed seduction of their princess. The king gives Peer the choice of becoming a troll if he marries his daughter but in the end Peer backs out and is sentenced to death. The devilish halling dance theme builds to a rousing climax to end the suite.

Piano Concerto in a minor, op.16
by Edvard Grieg
Grieg performed both as soloist and accompanist at his own concerts. Piano music holds a position of importance in his overall output. The Concerto in a minor is one of the most frequently played piano concertos in the world. It has become a staple of the repertory and earned him international attention. Grieg composed the concerto at the age of 25, but continued to revise it many times with the last revisions sent to the publisher weeks before his death. The work premiered in April 1869 in Copenhagen with the dedicatee, Edmund Neupert, as soloist.

Grieg discovered the music of Robert Schumann at the Leipzig Conservatory. There are interesting parallels between the Schumann and Grieg piano concertos in the first movements. They both are in a minor, open with a flourish followed by the theme stated by the winds, and continue with developments in two sections. The opening sonata form movement, Allegro molto moderato, unfolds revealing rich Romantic lyricism and bravura that is inspired by Schumann but uniquely Grieg.

The Adagio is an extended reverie utilizing one of Grieg’s most beautiful melodies. It opens serenely with muted strings, winds, and horns. The piano enters gently but quickly increases the drama before dying away again at the close.

The Allegro moderato molto e marcato follows without a break and the material connecting these movements may have been inspired by the opening of the rondo of Beethoven’s G Major Piano Concerto. This is a good example of Grieg’s Romantic nationalism, combining rich lyrical melodies while involving Norwegian flavor through the use of the halling, a popular Norwegian dance tune in duple meter with strong accents.

Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major, K. 543
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Having enjoyed some musical successes in Vienna, Mozart (1756-91) moved to that cultural center in 1781 and began teaching and performing his compositions in various concerts. At first the career move proved successful, and in 1782 he married Constanze Weber. The years between 1783 and 1788 were the busiest and most musically successful for Mozart. He was in demand for public and private concerts and he began to publish his music, but by the end of 1787 performances had grown less frequent and Mozart fell deeper and deeper into debt. In 1788, following the death of Christoph Willibald Gluck, he was appointed the new court composer by the Emperor of Austria, Joseph II. Unfortunately, the job came at a reduced salary, but Mozart’s financial situation required him to accept it regardless. The position provided a small but dependable income and improved social standing. His fame had not brought him financial security and he often needed to rely on teaching, payments from patrons, publishing fees, and the kindness of his friends to make ends meet for his family. By the middle of 1788, Mozart even found it necessary to move his family to Alsergrund, a suburb of Vienna where he could find cheaper rents.

That summer, Symphonies No. 39, 40, and 41 were all produced within a relatively short period of time, with Symphony No. 39 being completed by late June. It is likely that they were conceived as a trilogy. Unlike Symphony No. 40, which was performed at Vienna’s Burgtheater with Antonio Salieri conducting, there is no evidence that Symphony No. 39 was ever performed during Mozart’s lifetime. The symphony is a mostly lighthearted score, but it contains a slightly greater degree of dissonance than his earlier works. The sound of this symphony was unprecedented because Mozart chose to orchestrate it for a pair of clarinets and no oboes. It is among the more expansive, complex, and difficult of the Mozart symphonies.

The opening movement is in sonata form and is the longest of the symphony. It begins with a stately Adagio introduction that is somewhat unusual because only a few of Mozart’s symphonies begin in this manner. It employs rapid scales descending in the upper strings and ascending in the lower strings and dotted rhythms which may have been inspired by the French overture. The main body of the movement, Allegro, begins with an imitative first theme that becomes agitated, leading to a second theme that is more calm. The descending scales of the introduction continue to be heard throughout.

Mozart places the Andante con moto in the key of A flat Major, one he rarely used. The folk-like opening melody alternates with a more passionate and intense theme, and the movement comes to a close with a restatement of the first melody. The Menuetto and Trio contains a boisterous and rustic, rather than refined, minuet contrasted with a trio that may have been based on an actual ländler, the forerunner to the waltz. Mozart had grown interested in the clarinet and this is evident especially in the trio in which the first clarinet has the main melody and second clarinet embellishes it with arpeggios in low register. The symphony draws to a close with a monothematic Finale reminiscent of Haydn. The nine note melody is subjected to a series of modulations, ending abruptly with only the first seven notes of the theme.

Notes by Kristin Hauser
January 13, 2008