Grieg: Songs

Arnesen:Eriksen

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Cat No: 8553781

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099478120

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: GRIEG

Description
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) Songs Edvard Grieg showed an early interest inmusic. At the age of fifteen he was sent to the Conservatory in Leipzig on the suggestion of the violinistand composer Ole Bull (1810 -1880). The city, home of the famous GewandhausOrchestra and with a Conservatory founded by Mendelssohn, was stronglycharacterized by the German romantic spirit and made an immediate impression onthe young Norwegian composer. Here he acquired a solid technical foundation andalthough he later expressed his reservations about the education he hadreceived, his sketch-books and exercises from his time in Leipzig show that in his lessons withRichter, Hauptmann and Reinecke he still had freedom to experiment and that histalent was recognised. There was no real basis for Grieg's later criticisms ofthe teaching he had received. After completing hisstudies in Leipzig, Grieg settled in Copenhagen and there soon cameunder the influence of Rikard Nordraak, whose enthusiasm and firm belief thatthe future of Norwegian music lay in its national folk-music traditions was asignificant influence on Grieg's development as a composer. The influence of Nordraakcan best be perceived in the Humoresque, Opus 6, which may be seen as abreak-through for Grieg as a composer. The same year his famous collection ofsongs, Hjertets Melodier, Opus 5 (Melodies of the Heart) settings of words byHans Christian Andersen, was published. In the autumn of 1866 Grieg establishedhimself in Christiania (Oslo), which remained until 1874 the centre of hisactivities. It was in this period that he built the foundation of hisincreasing fame. Griegwas earlycategorized as a composer of smaller forms. His indisputable lyrical powerswere never questioned, but, with the exception of a few works such as the PianoConcerto, Opus 16, the String Quartet in G minor, Opus 27,the Piano Sonata in E minor, Opus 7, the three Violin Sonatas, Opus 8,Opus 13 and Opus 45 and the Cello Sonata, Opus 36, he wasgenerally unable to come to terms with larger forms. Grieg felt this as ashortcoming and blamed, 'without justification, the education he had receivedin Leipzig. Nevertheless he wasable to show that he had also mastered these more extended forms when, all tooseldom, he found musical material that could be adapted and treated within theframework of traditional sonata form. The material that attracted him, however,was of a very different kind. Grieg's encounterwith Norwegian folk-music and his assimilation of substantial features from it setfree his creative powers and suggested to many that his music was, in effect,synonymous with folk-music. Some saw him simply as an arranger of folk-music, aconclusion that hurt him deeply, since Grieg in his own works very rarely usedreal folk-tunes. It is quite another matter that many of his compositions haveattained the status of folk-music. Harmonic substance isvery central to all Grieg's music and it is the harmony that is often thestarting-point
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