Composed 1884-5; 17 minutes

Grieg wrote his Holberg Suite in 1884 for anniversary festivities in Bergen, the hometown of both the composer himself and, exactly two centuries earlier, the Norwegian-born writer Ludwig Holberg, the founder of the modern Danish-Norwegian literary schools. Living from 1684 to 1754, mostly in Copenhagen, Holberg was an exact contemporary of Bach, Handel, and Rameau. Grieg took this coincidence as the starting point for a highly unusual, distinctive, and even ground-breaking suite in homage to his fellow compatriot. Fra Holberg tid is best described by its full title From Holberg’s Time: Suite in the Olden Style. The five-movement suite is a romantic composer’s re-creation of the 18^th century French dance-suite of Holberg’s time, using much of what was then known of the stylized French suite. Grieg used some of the ornaments, graceful phrasing, and elegant lines of the French clavecin composers he was imitating and adopted four of the dance movements then in vogue. 

The Prelude brims with energy and good humor which carry over to the stately Sarabande and courtly Gavotte, with its contrasting rustic Musette. The Air is the source of one of Grieg’s most winning melodies. The suite concludes with the exuberant, high-kicking Rigaudon dance—a favorite at the court of Louis XIV—perhaps with an added hint of the traditional Norwegian fiddle-playing the composer so admired. Grieg’s Holberg Suite started life in a version for piano and Grieg gave the first performance in Bergen in December 1884. Immediately afterwards, he skillfully arranged it for string orchestra and made a further version for full orchestra not long after that. The Holberg Suite soon gained widespread popularity which it has kept to this day.