Written by Anna Vorhes

BORN
June 15, 1843, Bergen, Norway

DIED
September 4, 1907, Bergen

INSTRUMENTATION
two flutes, one doubling piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, strings

DURATION
30 minutes

COMPOSED
1868-69, but revised frequently through 1907

WORLD PREMIERE
April 3, 1869, in Copenhagen, Denmark, with Edmund Neupert as soloist, Holger Simon Paulli conducting

SOMETHING INTERESTING TO LISTEN FOR:  The opening of this concerto is iconic.  Few people who love piano literature would fail to recognize the virtuosic piano opening.  There are two interesting things about this opening.  First, Grieg was a strong admirer of his predecessor Robert Schumann.  Hearing Schumann’s piano concerto performed by Clara Schumann, Robert’s widow, was a pivotal experience in Grieg’s life.  He spoke of the event often.  When Grieg was ready to write his own concerto, he imitated Schumann by opening with a piano flourish.  The other interesting thing to listen for is the motive of the opening, a three-note descending figure.  If you remember your solfege (singing syllables) it can be sung as do-ti-sol.  This figure is common in Norwegian folk music, and also in Grieg’s music.  It is an example of how he used familiar motives from his homeland without quoting actual melodies. 

PROGRAM NOTES

Learning the grammar and syntax of music is often one of the first necessities of becoming a great composer.  It is common to find the great composers working with teachers in various places and exposing themselves to criticism and training.  Grieg’s first piano teacher was his mother, an accomplished pianist.  She also invited numerous people to the family home to enjoy music making.  Among them was the famous Norwegian fiddler Ole Bull who persuaded the family to send the young composer to Leipzig. Grieg went to the Conservatory in Leipzig that Mendelssohn had founded.  There he studied with several teachers, including Ernst Wenzel who had worked with Schumann and instilled in his new pupil, Grieg, a love of the music created by the earlier master.  

As a student, Grieg heard many important concerts in Leipzig.  For Grieg himself perhaps the most important was listening to Clara Schumann play her husband’s piano concerto.  This was a peak experience in the composer’s life.  When he finally sat down to write his own concerto the inspiration of the Schumann concerto guided his thoughts and his compositional choices.  The connection is obvious to those familiar with both works.  

Grieg wrote this concerto at one of the happiest times of his life.  After he finished his education he moved to Copenhagen, where he continued studies with Niels Gada, a well-known Danish composer.  He interacted with the society of the Danish capitol.  He met his cousin Nina Hagerup.  The two were engaged in 1864 and married in 1867.  Their daughter Alexandra joined the family in 1868.  In this happy atmosphere Grieg wrote this concerto.  He and Nina went to Rome in 1869 where they visited Franz Liszt.  Grieg shared compositions, and Liszt sightread this concerto.  He was most complementary and shared some possible improvements.  The concerto was widely accepted and lauded during Grieg’s life. 

The concerto includes the traditional compositional techniques Grieg learned in Leipzig along with his innate love of music from his homeland.  The combination is intriguing.  Like Schumann, he begins with a bombastic piano passage leading to a first movement that reflects the familiar concerto form though he does not follow all the “rules” that had evolved.  He even adds an entirely new melody in the coda.  The passage work in the solo cadenza offers lovely brilliance.

The second movement begins with the strings, followed by the winds before the piano joins this delectable and gentle movement.  This quiet movement sets us up for the exuberant sense of Norwegian folk dance that pervades the final movement.  The solo men’s dance of halling with its flirtatious strolls interrupted with athletic kicks is evoked in this movement.  Toward the end the meter moves to triple, and some have compared this to the Norwegian couples’ dance springdans.  The movement shows us where Grieg will continue in his composition. This is the last composition using the true traditional forms of art music.  The rest of his output will be clearly influenced by his Norwegian heritage and built to share that rather than express the older forms.