Who is edvard grieg




















His music came from the depths of rural Norway, where the quick and resonant tones of the Hardanger fiddle met his ear, and the Hardangerfjord's shifting moods enchanted his eye. Gronvold concluded that there was an intense and indissoluble relationship between the environment he lived in and the music that he created.

It is almost impossible to listen to Grieg, be it in a concert hall or a drawing room, without sensing a light, fresh breeze from the blue waters, a glimpse of sparkling glaciers, a recollection of the steep mountains and of life in the fjordland of western Norway, where Grieg was born and dearly loved to roam.

In good times and bad But this romantic image of the composer, and of his art and environment was only half the truth. Success did not come easily to Grieg.

His life was a struggle where he encountered both success and adversity. In the s he worked hard to support both himself and his family as a choir and orchestral conductor, as a music teacher and as a performer.

In these fields he was successful, but it took time to win the recognition of other musicians and of the public. His harmonies seemed dissonant and unorthodox to a public still striving to understand Beethoven and Mozart. Grieg could not spend long periods in such an environment without being destroyed as an artist. The Norwegian school of painters, with Hans Gude at its head, had taken the obvious consequence of this several years before.

Every summer they sketched and planned in the Norwegian mountains. But with the advent of the autumn, they packed their bags and went to Dusseldorf to complete and sell the paintings.

At regular intervals Bjornson and Ibsen had to do the same, gathering new impulses and appreciation in Germany, Italy and France. This was how Grieg chose to work too. He decided to compose in his own country, but he also needed the inspiration of the European centers of music. If he was ever to be able to live off the proceeds of his own production, he needed a broader musical market than Norway and Scandinavia could provide.

The 10 volumes of Lyric Pieces -- printed at Peters publishing house in Leipzig -- with their simple, intimate mood images, played a major part in making his name known and loved in every piano-playing home in Europe. Even in his own lifetime, his compositions for the piano earned him the name, "The Chopin of the North. His encounter with Franz Liszt and the artistic circles in Rome gave him fresh inspiration and self-confidence.

Fired with new energy and enthusiasm he returned to Christiania in There he initiated a fruitful cooperation with Bjornstjerne Bjornson, who for many years had been waiting for a composer who could write Norwegian music that would expand and bring to life his poems and dramas. The poem "Before a Southern Convent" for soprano, contralto, ladies' choir and orchestra was the first fruit of this cooperation. Inspired by its success Bjornson, in the same year, started on the dramatic poem "Bergliot" which with its rugged realism inspired Grieg to attempt a far more daring musical language than previously.

In the spring of Bjornson and Grieg presented the result of yet another cooperation, the scenic drama "Sigurd Jorsalfar. The work remained a fragment, but Grieg's music gives us some idea of what a magnificent national opera, and perhaps a major opera composer too, were thus lost to Norway.

The project was abandoned, but Grieg's dramatic talents were put to a new test when Henrik Ibsen asked him to write the incidental music to "Peer Gynt. In Grieg's own lifetime the "Peer Gynt" music scored a resounding international success thanks, not least, to the two orchestral suites which made the music accessible in the concert hall. Bergen and the artists' grant In Grieg was awarded an annual artists' grant, and could support himself without needing to teach or to conduct.

He returned to his home town of Bergen. The framework now seemed ideal for a productive period in his life. Instead, it was a time of both personal and artistic crisis. A period of depression, and Grieg's struggle to overcome it led, nevertheless, to the creation of profound and gripping works of a high quality.

The ambitious Ballad in G minor for piano and string quartet reflects the turmoil in his soul and his struggle to perfect both form and content. Grieg continued to maintain close ties with the Bergen Philharmonic and became its Music Director from In , Grieg met Tchaikovsky in Leipzig and the two became friends. Grieg died in the autumn of after a long illness at age Edvard Grieg. Edvard Grieg Edvard Grieg — Norwegian composer and pianist. Art in Residence.

The young Edvard Grieg was desperately unhappy at school, regularly suffering torment and abuse from his fellow students. But from an early age he was a highly proficient pianist, taught by his mother. A fortuitous encounter with a family friend, the violin virtuoso Ole Bull, resulted in the year-old Grieg's immediate transfer to the Leipzig Conservatory.

Moving to Copenhagen in , Grieg met the young composer Rikard Nordraak, whose passionate interest in the sagas, landscape, and music of his homeland inspired Grieg to take up the musical cudgels on behalf of Norway. In - the year of Nordraak's premature death - Grieg gave a concert of his own music, including some piano miniatures and the First Violin Sonata, which proved something of a sensation. When he returned home, Grieg concentrated his efforts on learning more about traditional Norwegian music.

Gradually, these melodies became an important part of his own compositions, with many of his works containing soaring tunes that evoke his Norwegian home. Grieg was determined to make his mark on the world with his first full orchestral piece.

The Piano Concerto was an instant success and many expected Grieg to follow it up with a second — but he never chose to write another. In —76, Grieg composed incidental music for the premiere of Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, at the request of the author - pictured. The opening movement, Morning, and In the Hall of the Mountain King have become staples of the concert repertoire and have featured in many TV advertisements.

In the family took up residence in Troldhaugen near Bergen, where Grieg was to stay for the next 20 years. His piano piece Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, taken from the Lyric Pieces, was written to commemorate his and Nina's own silver wedding anniversary. Grieg was given an honorary degree by Cambridge University in



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