IDAGIO | Grieg: holberg suite - string quartet in g minor - 2 elegiac melodies

Featuring

Richard Tognetti
Australian Chamber Orchestra
Edvard Grieg

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Composition History

Grieg's Holberg Suite was commissioned by the city of Bergen in 1884 for the bicentenary of Ludvig Holberg's birth, a celebrated poet and dramatist known as 'the Molière of the North,' who, like Grieg, was born in Bergen.

Composition History

Grieg's String Quartet in G minor, Op. 27, is his only complete extant work for the medium; he completed it in 1878 and revised it after feedback from German violinist Robert Heckmann, whose quartet premiered it successfully.

Compositional Technique

Richard Tognetti, artistic director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, arranged Grieg's String Quartet in G minor for string orchestra, noting that the richness of Grieg's textures and massive chordal effects make it surprisingly suitable for a full string orchestra.

Composer Biography

Grieg, primarily a pianist, was influenced by great string players like Ole Bull, a 19th-century violin virtuoso who married into Grieg's family, and folk-fiddler Torgeir Augundson ('Myllarguten'), who introduced him to Norwegian folk music.

Compositional Technique

The Holberg Suite, originally for piano and later rescored for string orchestra, is an early example of a work composed 'im alten Stil' ('in the olden style'), blending Baroque dance forms with Grieg's lush string writing and romantic harmonies.

Performer Biography

Richard Tognetti, artistic director and lead violin of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, was co-composer for the film score of Peter Weir's 'Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World' in 2003, and also tutored its star, Russell Crowe, on violin.

Composition History

The Two Elegiac Melodies are transcriptions of songs by Grieg, based on poems by Norwegian writer Aasmund Olafsen Vinje, an early proponent of 'Nynorsk' (New Norwegian) — a linguistic standard asserting Norway's independence from Sweden and Denmark.

Grieg: Complete Symphonic Works, Vol. II

GRIEG / SIBELIUS: Romantic Music for Strings

Grieg: Holberg Suite / 2 Norvegian Airs / Lyric Pieces etc.

Grieg: Complete Music for String Orchestra (The)

Grieg: Music for Strings

Grieg: Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16; In Autumn, Op. 11; Two Elegiac Melodies, Op. 34; Two Norwegian Melodies, Op. 63; Two Melodies for String Orchestra, Op. 53