Grieg: Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16

Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16 (1868) Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)

Norway’s best-known composer, Edvard Grieg grew up in a Scandinavian world quite unlike that of today, in which Norway and Sweden still formed a single nation, and Grieg himself raised in a family setting heavily influenced by Danish traditions. It was only in his twenties that he became deeply involved with the folk music of his own country, with profound consequences for the development of his musical personality. While music played an important role in his background, Grief was a relative late-comer, enrolling at the Leipzig Conservatory at age fifteen. While he found the conservative atmosphere of that institution stifling, the training under teachers who had been members of the Mendelssohn/Schumann faction in German musical life was to have a lasting influence upon Grieg. Indeed, that influence lingered on in his many songs and piano pieces. Grieg has been disparaged as a miniaturist, although in 1864 he actually composed a Symphony in C Minor, destined to be his largest composition. But on hearing the First Symphony of his compatriot, Johan Svendsen, the insecure Grieg suppressed his symphony, which was only heard for the first time in 1980. Although indeed a master of small, lyrical musical forms, Grieg showed a confident handling of larger structures, as can be heard in such compositions as the E Minor Piano Sonata, the G Minor String Quartet, and, most of all, the A Minor Piano Concerto.

The concerto is an example of a fine work which has survived its popularity. In a nice touch of irony, detractors have enjoyed unflattering comparisons with another A Minor Concerto by a “miniaturist” composer, Robert Schumann. For all that, it has been admired by composers as fastidious as Benjamin Britten, and performed by the likes of Michelangeli and Dinu Lipatti.

The work was set on its way through the encouragement of Franz Liszt, whose open-hearted of young composers should earn him the eternal gratitude of all musicians. Grieg met Liszt in Rome, where the master sat down and delivered a masterful performance of the concerto at sight from the manuscript full score---complete with running commentary of observations and praise! Grieg left a delicious account of Liszt’s reaction to a highly original harmonic turn at the end of the work:

“Towards the end of the finale…where the first note of the first triplet of the theme---G sharp---is changed to G natural in the orchestra, while the piano in a tremendous scale passage traverses the entire keyboard, Liszt suddenly stopped, rose to his full height, left the piano, and with mighty theatrical steps and raised arms strode through the great monastery hall, literally roaring out the theme. When he got to the above-mentioned G, he gestured imperiously with his arm and cried, ‘G, G, not G-sharp!! Wonderful!! That is the genuine article!!’ He then went back to the piano, repeated the whole phrase and concluded the work.”

The A Minor Concerto was the product of a young man of 25, recently married, now a father, and in the

full flood of inspired composition. While indebted to the Schumann concerto in its ardour and lyrical invention, as well as richly endowed with Lisztian pyrotechnics, the work is the first full expression of Grieg’s originality. The Norwegian element is most pronounced in the finale, with its opening tune which recalls the typical Hardanger fiddle music, and the Norwegian dance, the HALLING. (At the end of the movement the same music returns in triple metre, converted to the character of another dance, the SPRINGAR.) In broad outline the work is quite traditional: a sonataform opening movement, tripartite slow movement, and lively sonata-rondo finale. Most memorable are the lyrical moments: the plaintive flute melody in the finale (which returns in grandiose form at the end, the moment which so delighted Liszt), and the slow movement, sometimes described as a nocturne…”not a Mediterranean nocturne, but the gentle shimmering light of a Scandinavian midsummer night.”

GPYO concert