- 54
- 421 162
PianoCurio
เข้าร่วมเมื่อ 22 ก.ค. 2021
A museum of pianistic curiosities. Original curations and recordings of rare and exceptional piano music, plus performances on historical pianos using Pianoteq. All recordings are my own.
Grieg’s Modernist Twilight: revelatory piano miniatures from his final years (Slåtter, Op. 72)
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
17 Norwegian Peasant Dances (Slåtter), Op. 72, selected movements
PianoCurio, pf
Instrument: Blüthner Model One (Pianoteq)
00:00 VI. Gangar (walking dance)
01:30 III. Bridal March from Telemark
05:49 IV. Halling from the Fairy Hill
06:54 "Civilizing the tune"
09:52 XVI. Springing dance (The Maidens from Kivledal)
11:39 XVII. Gangar (The Maidens from Kivledal)
13:35 V. The Prillar from Os Parish
14:52 XIV. The Goblins' Bridal Procession at Vossevangen (Gangar)
Many composers' lives fit squarely within the historical eras we have named - Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modern, etc. - which serve to roughly categorize and summarize the cultural times in which they lived and worked. Many others lived during multiple major eras while still largely "belonging" to the one in which they first matured, since their styles did not develop any further. There is a third category that contains composers who pioneered transitional styles at the chronological seams between major eras, as in what Beethoven did between Classicism and Romanticism, for example. Grieg's forward-looking treatment of folk material in his Norwegian Peasant Dances (Slåtter), op. 72 (adapting it "on its own terms," in the words of musicologist Ståle Kleiberg), places him in this third category as a transitional figure between the Romantic and Modern eras of Western classical music.
The origins of the 17 Slåtter that Grieg published in 1903 are layered. These folk dance tunes were aurally passed down (un-notated) for generations, with some motivic material even as old as the 1000s, among players of Norway's national instrument, the Hardanger fiddle. This violin-like instrument typically has four sympathetic strings underneath, adding a resonant quality, plus a flatter bridge to accommodate droning on open strings and two-part playing. In the late 1800s, the folk fiddler Knut Dahle believed that the art form was dying out, so he wanted Grieg to write down and preserve the traditional music he played by heart. Grieg eventually arranged for a composer, Johan Halvorsen (also a violinist), to meet Dahle and transcribe the tunes for violin in standard notation. Halvorsen did so with great interest and difficulty, noting the many strange and fleeting ornaments that the fiddler passed off with ease. Adaptations of these can be heard throughout Grieg's piano version of the Slåtter, which he began arranging in 1902 (after much reluctance) based on Halvorsen's violin versions.
Grieg intended his piano versions of the Slåt tunes to serve as artistic representations of their folk origins. One can hear the great liberties Grieg took in doing so when comparing these pieces to their source material (still played by fiddlers in Norway today), yet Grieg adapted them in such a way that highlighted his transitional perspective in music history (he died in 1907 while musical Modernism was coming of age). Grieg works out many of the motives in overtly Romanticized sections while contrasting these episodes with ones that embrace the "wild" characters of the material, which exist outside of the Western musical canon. Grieg wrote that he wanted to "bring them under a system of harmony" to avoid monotonous passages, while preserving their originality and daring imagination.
As noted in the video, the young Percy Grainger went on to befriend Grieg and champion these dances while Béla Bartók owned a personal copy of them. The torch of Modernism that these composers took up would elevate national folk material to a new importance in music. Folk elements would no longer only serve as a creative gloss or for cheap exotic effects, but would be ethnographically researched, recorded, and painstakingly reproduced as valid artistic materials in their own right.
Ståle Kleiberg's quote in the video is taken form his paper "Grieg's 'Slåtter', Op. 72: Change of Musical Style or New Concept of Nationality?" www.jstor.org/stable/766395
17 Norwegian Peasant Dances (Slåtter), Op. 72, selected movements
PianoCurio, pf
Instrument: Blüthner Model One (Pianoteq)
00:00 VI. Gangar (walking dance)
01:30 III. Bridal March from Telemark
05:49 IV. Halling from the Fairy Hill
06:54 "Civilizing the tune"
09:52 XVI. Springing dance (The Maidens from Kivledal)
11:39 XVII. Gangar (The Maidens from Kivledal)
13:35 V. The Prillar from Os Parish
14:52 XIV. The Goblins' Bridal Procession at Vossevangen (Gangar)
Many composers' lives fit squarely within the historical eras we have named - Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modern, etc. - which serve to roughly categorize and summarize the cultural times in which they lived and worked. Many others lived during multiple major eras while still largely "belonging" to the one in which they first matured, since their styles did not develop any further. There is a third category that contains composers who pioneered transitional styles at the chronological seams between major eras, as in what Beethoven did between Classicism and Romanticism, for example. Grieg's forward-looking treatment of folk material in his Norwegian Peasant Dances (Slåtter), op. 72 (adapting it "on its own terms," in the words of musicologist Ståle Kleiberg), places him in this third category as a transitional figure between the Romantic and Modern eras of Western classical music.
The origins of the 17 Slåtter that Grieg published in 1903 are layered. These folk dance tunes were aurally passed down (un-notated) for generations, with some motivic material even as old as the 1000s, among players of Norway's national instrument, the Hardanger fiddle. This violin-like instrument typically has four sympathetic strings underneath, adding a resonant quality, plus a flatter bridge to accommodate droning on open strings and two-part playing. In the late 1800s, the folk fiddler Knut Dahle believed that the art form was dying out, so he wanted Grieg to write down and preserve the traditional music he played by heart. Grieg eventually arranged for a composer, Johan Halvorsen (also a violinist), to meet Dahle and transcribe the tunes for violin in standard notation. Halvorsen did so with great interest and difficulty, noting the many strange and fleeting ornaments that the fiddler passed off with ease. Adaptations of these can be heard throughout Grieg's piano version of the Slåtter, which he began arranging in 1902 (after much reluctance) based on Halvorsen's violin versions.
Grieg intended his piano versions of the Slåt tunes to serve as artistic representations of their folk origins. One can hear the great liberties Grieg took in doing so when comparing these pieces to their source material (still played by fiddlers in Norway today), yet Grieg adapted them in such a way that highlighted his transitional perspective in music history (he died in 1907 while musical Modernism was coming of age). Grieg works out many of the motives in overtly Romanticized sections while contrasting these episodes with ones that embrace the "wild" characters of the material, which exist outside of the Western musical canon. Grieg wrote that he wanted to "bring them under a system of harmony" to avoid monotonous passages, while preserving their originality and daring imagination.
As noted in the video, the young Percy Grainger went on to befriend Grieg and champion these dances while Béla Bartók owned a personal copy of them. The torch of Modernism that these composers took up would elevate national folk material to a new importance in music. Folk elements would no longer only serve as a creative gloss or for cheap exotic effects, but would be ethnographically researched, recorded, and painstakingly reproduced as valid artistic materials in their own right.
Ståle Kleiberg's quote in the video is taken form his paper "Grieg's 'Slåtter', Op. 72: Change of Musical Style or New Concept of Nationality?" www.jstor.org/stable/766395
มุมมอง: 4 279
วีดีโอ
The most unserious piano piece
มุมมอง 41Kวันที่ผ่านมา
Rodion Shchedrin (b. 1932) Humoresque for piano (1957) PianoCurio, pf Instrument: Bösendorfer 280VC (Pianoteq) One of the few humoresques that is seriously humorous, rivaling even Mozart's most inappropriate musical pranks. I can't immediately think of a funny piano piece that is as goofy as this one, especially when used as a musical foil to lighten up the audience after a performance. Check o...
Why this obscure piano piece sounds vaguely familiar
มุมมอง 6K14 วันที่ผ่านมา
I somehow felt that I had always known this forgotten melody by Widor, until I realized that we all do, in a way. I believe I figured out why. John Williams' music for the Harry Potter movies, especially the titular "Hedwig's theme," is an iconic part of film music and pop culture today. Many of his famous melodies draw inspiration from eclectic styles and composers including Dvořák, Wagner, Li...
The Wanderer Decade: piano sonatas from every year of the 1810s
มุมมอง 6K14 วันที่ผ่านมา
This is the second part of my century-long journey through 100 sonatas of the 1800s. Watch the first part here: th-cam.com/video/8N-XtmTeTsM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=W_Z_qy-UwfhgdOz2 I performed each of these works on an 1812 Schöffstoss pianoforte by Pianoteq tuned to A=415 hz. See below for some additional comments on each sonata. The modulatory transitions are my own semi-improvisations created for thi...
2 pianos 8 hands: Toccata from Suite gothique by Boëllmann (scrolling score)
มุมมอง 2.8K21 วันที่ผ่านมา
Léon Boëllmann (1862-1897) Suite gothique pour orgue, Op. 25 (1895) IV. Toccata (arr. Léon Roques for 2 pianos 8 hands in 1915) Performed by PianoCurio I had been searching for a good, spooky work to feature this Halloween when I came across this vintage arrangement of Boëllmann’s famous piece on IMSLP. When I didn’t immediately find an existing recording of it (what, nobody has 2 pianos, 8 han...
1894 Piano Exam: Men's & Women's Sight-reading Pieces, Composed by Widor
มุมมอง 18Kหลายเดือนก่อน
Two original piano pieces composed for an 1894 student competition at the Paris Conservatoire. 00:00 Men's Piece 01:37 Women's Piece PianoCurio, pf Men and women pianists: It is incredibly strange to us today, but the reality in the 19th century was that women did not directly compete with men in piano competitions. Though women were certainly encouraged, even expected, to learn the piano, they...
Lyadov Starter Pack - 5 Essential Preludes by a Late-Romantic Perfectionist
มุมมอง 15Kหลายเดือนก่อน
Anatoly Lyadov (1855-1914) Five selected preludes for piano PianoCurio, pf Piano: Blüthner Model One (Pianoteq) The Russian composer Anatoly Lyadov wrote some of the finest lesser-heard gems in the late-Romantic piano repertoire. They are not all obscure, as the first prelude of this set has rightly become one of his most famous melodies. To me, Lyadov represents a link between the pianism of C...
Who does this melody remind you of?
มุมมอง 6Kหลายเดือนก่อน
Hermann Goetz (1840-1876) Piano Quintet, Op.16 (1874) II. Andante con moto (arr. for piano 4 hands by Friedrich Hermann) PianoCurio, pf This music may bring to mind that of Mendelssohn, Schumann, or even Brahms at his most generous. Its harmonies have the warmth and clarity of the German Romantic composers and its melody has a natural Dvořákian ease to it, as if it sprang up from the soil. Rega...
Playing a sonata from every year of the 1800s: The first decade
มุมมอง 7Kหลายเดือนก่อน
What if we could listen to one piano sonata from each year of the 19th century, witnessing the dramatic transformation of styles from Steibelt to Scriabin, with all of them performed on pianos from the era in which they were composed? That is what I plan to do in this ten-part series. My goal is not only to play a sonata from each year, but to feature the largest variety of composers with as fe...
If you like this piece, he wrote 375 more over 8 years
มุมมอง 28Kหลายเดือนก่อน
A passionate sketch born from romantic obsession. Zdeněk Fibich (1850-1900) Moods, Impressions and Reminiscences Op. 41, Book I, No. 44, Andante PianoCurio, pf Instrument: 1922 Erard, close mic (Pianoteq) Despite composing plenty of fine chamber works, symphonic poems, and several operas, Fibich is not nearly as recognized today as his Czech composer colleagues Smetana and Dvořák. One possible ...
Koechlin's spectral pianism - A unique voice
มุมมอง 17Kหลายเดือนก่อน
Charles Koechlin (1867-1950) Les heures persanes, Op. 65 (1913-1919) X. Roses au soleil de midi [Roses in the midday sun] PianoCurio, pf Charles Koechlin was just one of many early-20th century modernists who forged a new musical path, not as an end to tonality, but as an extension of it in a "spectral" harmonic language. Koechlin's music can sound at once luminous and mysterious, transparent a...
This dark gothic prelude belongs in a museum
มุมมอง 15K2 หลายเดือนก่อน
This dark gothic prelude belongs in a museum
Why Beethoven used more pedal (sometimes) - historical vs. modern piano comparison
มุมมอง 23K2 หลายเดือนก่อน
Why Beethoven used more pedal (sometimes) - historical vs. modern piano comparison
Tell me Chopin was your teacher in one etude
มุมมอง 21K2 หลายเดือนก่อน
Tell me Chopin was your teacher in one etude
The radiant poetry of Mel Bonis' Mélisande for piano
มุมมอง 8072 หลายเดือนก่อน
The radiant poetry of Mel Bonis' Mélisande for piano
The French Sequel to Schumann's Carnaval: 12 pieces for piano by C.-M. Widor (1891)
มุมมอง 2.2K2 หลายเดือนก่อน
The French Sequel to Schumann's Carnaval: 12 pieces for piano by C.-M. Widor (1891)
Liszt's ‘Beside a spring’ in two versions on period pianos
มุมมอง 5363 หลายเดือนก่อน
Liszt's ‘Beside a spring’ in two versions on period pianos
Playing Beethoven on 7 pianos from his lifetime
มุมมอง 43K3 หลายเดือนก่อน
Playing Beethoven on 7 pianos from his lifetime
Eduard Schütt - Andante Cantabile and Scherzino for two pianos, Op. 79
มุมมอง 3803 หลายเดือนก่อน
Eduard Schütt - Andante Cantabile and Scherzino for two pianos, Op. 79
Rameau's Gavotte but each variation is played on a newer piano
มุมมอง 26K4 หลายเดือนก่อน
Rameau's Gavotte but each variation is played on a newer piano
Alex. Voormolen (“The Dutch Ravel”) - Suite de clavecin pour piano
มุมมอง 8514 หลายเดือนก่อน
Alex. Voormolen (“The Dutch Ravel”) - Suite de clavecin pour piano
Franz Neruda - Variations in B minor, dedicated to Edvard Grieg, Op. 49
มุมมอง 2.9K5 หลายเดือนก่อน
Franz Neruda - Variations in B minor, dedicated to Edvard Grieg, Op. 49
Friedrich Kiel - Duet for solo piano, Op. 18 No. 3
มุมมอง 4975 หลายเดือนก่อน
Friedrich Kiel - Duet for solo piano, Op. 18 No. 3
Anton Rubinstein - Fantasy for two pianos in F minor, Op. 73
มุมมอง 9K5 หลายเดือนก่อน
Anton Rubinstein - Fantasy for two pianos in F minor, Op. 73
Theodor Kullak - Nachtgesang (Night-Song) for piano, Op. 92 no. 2
มุมมอง 8K6 หลายเดือนก่อน
Theodor Kullak - Nachtgesang (Night-Song) for piano, Op. 92 no. 2
Ignaz Moscheles - Pastorale in the Organ-Style for piano, Op. 135
มุมมอง 6996 หลายเดือนก่อน
Ignaz Moscheles - Pastorale in the Organ-Style for piano, Op. 135
Alfred Grünfeld - Spanish Serenade, Op. 37
มุมมอง 8K6 หลายเดือนก่อน
Alfred Grünfeld - Spanish Serenade, Op. 37
Where can we get the sheet music?
Nobody says so no pararel fifts in todays age. It's rule for baroque or calssical contrapoint, and almost every composer of this era compose in modern or late roatic lengauge, where are experiments and unconvential intervals more than accepted
Who is the pianist?
Until I came across Halvorsen, Norwegian music was all Grieg to me.
Nice cute pieces. Mostly insignificant though. Perhaps significantly nostalgic for an aging admirer of Grieg, for playing for oneself or a small like minded audience
The two of you did a awesome job this is great ❤
Considering that you have four arms. I think that Juliard might be interested.
Wow, you have four arms?? Very good playing.
I wnjoy the dissonance in the chords, I've been a huge fan of Luigis mansion and deeply adore all of those fanciful melodies. Classical music always has dissonance, tension, chord blocks, etc.
so glad this came up in my recommended ts is so fire
I don't like it, so there's 375 more I don't like
Huge time saver
You should try Bolcom's Dead Moth Tango. I'm sure you'd kill it. It has a similarly funny vibe, but maybe slightly more sardonic.
I love Bolcom’s rags, and some of them can be silly at times. Don’t think I’ve heard the dead moth tango before, will check it out!
amazing video, great timing as well as I am recently studying/playing all the lyric pieces. I was very fascinated by how modern some of them sound, this video was great input.
Check out smalin’s animation of this performance here: th-cam.com/video/zHZbJNQRgVU/w-d-xo.htmlsi=edUKny6qvhBElP6t
Wow, unexpected glimpse of the great Widor in a non-organ context. Bravo on this whole production! Are you an organist? Some of Charles-Marie's organ movements are similar to this piece. The great disgrace of modern classical music is its ugliness. A great tragedy is "organ composers'" music being unknown to most musicians and aficionados.
Thanks, I’m no organist but I am fascinated by the music of Widor. He brought his own style to the piano works he wrote, which span several decades and hundreds of pages. There are real treasures to be found in them!
strong influence from Prokofiev!
Did you hear some Prokofiev's Toccata quotation? 😅
You are playing?! This is wonderful to get for free. You must be a certified proffesional!
this channel is so epic
The first sounds like a piece by Bartok. Which one?
Totally agree, that one is #6 of the set.
0:52 *toeing
Oeps
I personally really love his op 71 no 2- Sommeraften
Chopin's own Prelude Op.24 n.3, just in C major instead of G major.
28,3 - th-cam.com/video/cf8o9gsRvBo/w-d-xo.htmlsi=omFWI94WxMfqVSQI_
They sound almost like Bartók - Impressive.
Definitely a link in the chain towards Bartók
My composition teacher made me study these. I'm always delighted he did, they're phenomenal.
Well, in a vacuum these two sound almost the same. But if you consider the rest of music history, you can probably find 50 more examples in 1 hour.
Finally someone who understands what Grieg was trying to achieve. The Slatter, the g minor ballad and the first string quartet are masterpieces. Had Grieg written only those, he would be seen as the great composer he actually was. Many look down on him bc of his more popular works. That’s very saddening.
Based on his diary entry after performing these in 1906 (pinned in the comments), he had already realized that his popular reputation would rest on his earlier works, and that weighed heavily on him. And it’s still true today: Peer Gynt, the piano concerto, early lyric pieces etc. are mostly what people hear
I love this vídeo style
Thanks, more on the way!
a lot of Poulenc’s songs are funnier and more ironic than this tbh! Great piece though i don’t get the hate
Why am i vibing with this so hard tho
so much Prokofiev in it
Thanks for the wonderful recordings of some lesser known works. I'm shopping for a digital piano and I'm curious what kind you're using.
I use a Yamaha N1X hybrid piano. Quite expensive when I got it a few years ago, but I needed a real action without the footprint of a grand. Kawai also makes a hybrid that I’ve heard others like, but I haven’t played one.
@@PianoCurio Thanks!
There is also the interesting and quite embarassing episode between Grieg and the Young Ravel that decided to play in front of the Norvegian Master one of His Dances, in a parisian Salon, i suppose...and then the Old Grieg sat up from his chair, beating the rhythm of his piece on the floor with his Stick... And saying, quite raging, at Ravel " No no...no, young Sir, not at all in this manner! More rhythm! You have not seen the men of my country dancing at this type of Music..."
Yikes! I didn’t know that one. I bet he never forgot that unplanned lesson. Grieg also once wrote how shocked he was that the young Percy Grainger could play these dances so intuitively and yet a young Norwegian pianist somehow got interpretation all wrong.
Hey heads up, do not turn your volume up for the last chord. It's a trap.
😏
@@PianoCurio hey, pin me if you really want to help lol
More from Grieg’s diary entry the day he premiered this music in public: “What hurt me was that the Norwegian Peasant Dances did not strike home as they should have. I played them with all the affection and magic I could muster. But - where my development as a composer has now led me, I dont have my own people [Norwegians] with me, and that is hard to bear. Here they always draw heavily on works from my youth, which on suitable occasions are praised at the expense of my recent ones. But - I must not let that hinder me. I hope I can continue to develop as long as I live. That is my fondest wish. The understanding of the general public will come in due course.”
"Away from Norwegians".....Was that while Grieg resided in Liechtenstein? BRAVO from Acapulco!
@ he was referring to the fact that his Oslo audience (“my own people”) did not applaud him warmly after the first performance he gave of the Slåtter. The next week the audience gave a much better response, so he was relieved by that.
@@PianoCurio -- I see now....Gracias por su aclaración magistral! Are you still enjoying living in Europe?
Thanks for posting these excerpts of my favorite Grieg compositions. I became acquainted with them via the wonderful recording of the entire set by the Hungarian pianist Andor Foldes.
I'm glad you enjoyed the selection, I've been wanting to make a video like this for a while. I love Grieg’s more famous stuff, but there is something so original about this music that puts it in a different category.
I was wondering if someone could explain the time stamps? Is it some kind of musical form I’m not familiar with?
They are informal labels and personal impressions that I applied to different sections using non-theoretical terms, so feel free to take them or leave them as you wish.
I don’t understand how people are saying they’re so different. The main melodic material has a huge amount in common. Very interesting comparison.
Yet another TH-cam wanker who wants to keep the composer to himself and denying us the ability to explore. Why do people like you keep doing this? It’s not clever and only makes you come over as a condescending dickhead. It’s terribly irritating.
have you tried the description of the video
Chromaticism drives the melody similar to Chopin
Mozart's K331 Sonata has the same peculiar "siciliana" rhythm.
This piece isnt fire, 🔥🔥🔥 Its water! 🌊🌊🌊
Very interesting. Never heard it before.
Is Shchedrin alive yet?! Omg! I don't like this piese, it's not funny or humorous, and this strange final... Anyway, thanks for the perform and uploading this;)
This reminds me of Music
Reminds me very much of Prokofiev's Cinderella ballet, which I have played a few times.
It sounds like a regular piece! Just messed up at points
Jazz😂
Quite bizarre piece I would say. But nice rythms.
I think it’s quite innovative, actually. A few techniques like this get used in notable pieces like Chopin’s “wrong note” etude.