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Donald Macleod looks at the decade Grieg spent in Oslo, with music including his rarely heard overture In Autumn and his only song cycle Haugtussa.

On 9th September 1907, it’s estimated that some forty to fifty thousand people turned out to pay their respects and watch Edvard Grieg’s cortège pass through the streets of Bergen. It’s an image that speaks of the enormous affection and esteem in which Grieg was held at the time of his death. Bergen was where Grieg was born in 1843, and in a speech he made 60 years later, he acknowledged that his music was drawn from the life of its people, the surroundings of the town and its natural beauty. His birthplace is one of several locations which provided Grieg with professional opportunity and creative nourishment. This week Donald Macleod is exploring Grieg’s life through the contrasting environments he needed to find the inspiration to write music. Donald begins his survey in Bergen, before assessing the decade Grieg spent in Oslo, the solitude he found in the picturesque Hardanger region. But Grieg had another, contradictory side to his nature, he was also a restless spirit and a keen traveller.

Grieg moved to Oslo, or Christiania as it was known then, when he was in his twenties. It was where Grieg would meet three leading figures in Norwegian cultural life, the playwrights Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Henrik Ibsen and the conductor and composer Johan Svendsen.

Arietta (Lyric pieces, Op 12)
Peter Jablonski, piano

Intermezzo: Borghild’s Dream (Sigurd Jorsalfar: Three orchestral pieces, Op 56)
Cologne West German Radio Symphony Orchestra
Eivind Aadland, conductor

Piano Sonata in E minor, Op 7 (1st movement - Allegro moderato)
Boris Giltburg, piano

In Autumn, Op 11
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Ole Kristian Ruud, conductor

Haugtussa, Op 67
Anne-Sofie Otter, mezzo soprano
Bengt Forsberg, piano