20/04/24
Edvard Grieg was just 25 years old when he wrote his first and only published piano concerto in 1868. This decade saw the opening of the Clifton suspension bridge; the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable; the development of the modern periodic table; along with the publishing of Great Expectations, Les Misérables, and War and Peace. Grieg lived in Bergen, now the second largest city in Norway. He reportedly knew every street and alley and had a great fondness of the old houses and architecture; though he resented the abundance of rain and long, dark nights. However, it was this same ‘natural beauty’ which he often credited for much of his inspiration.
Grieg lived in a large house with one older brother and his three sisters. His father was a successful merchant and local British consul; and his mother was an accomplished. She gave him ‘loving but firm’ piano lessons from a young age. His house was one of both a musical and religious nature. As a boy, he imagined himself as a clergyman, having had an enduring obsession with funerals and processions - he used to perform elaborate funerals for his pets. He started writing music from a young age, but was mocked by his peers and teachers alike in school for his obsessive fascination and knowledge of composers. It was a successful violinist and family friend who saw his talent at age 15 and encouraged his parents to send him to Leipzig Conservatory to focus on piano. Two years later he survived two life-threatening lung diseases due to a weak left lung and spinal deformity. These recurred throughout his life, and he was repeatedly admitted to spas and sanatoria.
His piano concerto was written in Denmark, on a health-related visit, drawing inspiration from the ‘whole of [his] surroundings’, both there and in Norway. It has many similarities to Robert Schumann’s piano concerto, which he coincidentally heard played by Clara Schumann in Leipzig at the age of 15. Both works are in the same key and open with a similar descending flourish. His fascination with Norwegian folk music also makes regular appearances. It was an immediate hit when it premiered in 1869, though Grieg was too busy with work to attend. In 1870, Grieg used a travel grant to visit Liszt, who was allegedly very impressed while sightreading the piece to an audience, offering a few suggestions for alteration. It was revised seven times throughout Grieg’s life, with the final version being finished just a few weeks before his death in 1907. Grieg had begun working on a second piano concerto, although it was never finished.
Grieg’s piano concerto has had a wide cultural impact; it was supposedly a favourite and the inspiration for Rachmaninov’s first piano concerto (written in 1891), and it was the first piano concerto ever recorded (in 1909). In 1951, Simon Barere collapsed while playing the first few bars of the concerto in Carnegie Hall, before dying offstage shortly afterwards. In 1977 the concerto was famously parodied by Morcambe and Wise for their Christmas special with Andre Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra. The punchline being that Eric Morcambe played all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.
The concerto begins with one of the most famous openings in the entire classical repertoire. The first movement takes a sonata form, with a dramatic cadenza written by the premiere performer Edmund Neupert. The second movement continues with a slower, more lyrical ternary reflection, before running directly into the third movement, which explores an energetic Norwegian folk theme which is briefly interrupted by a more lyrical tune, perhaps reflecting a sunrise in the fjordic Norwegian landscape. The movement recapitulates and concludes with some exposed technical sections, and a theatrically climactic rendition of the earlier sunrise motif.
0:00 Allegro molto moderato
12:50 Adagio
19:21 Allegro moderato molto e marcato - Quasi presto - Andante maestoso