Grieg: Olav Trygvason, Landkjenning, Sigurd Jorsalfar & Resignation

Featuring

Bjarte Engeset
Yngve Søberg
Helge Rønning
Nina Gravrok
Marianne Andersen
Magne Fremmerlid

Malmö SymfoniOrkester
Malmö Kammarkör
Lunds Studentsångare
Malmö Opera Orchestra
Malmö Opera Chorus
Edvard Grieg
Edmund Neupert

Did you know?

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Edvard Grieg's settings of texts by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, a central figure in the Norwegian national revival, often weave intensely dramatic music with lyrical and hymn-like elements.

Composition History

The piece Resignation by Edmund Neupert, a leading Norwegian pianist and friend of Grieg, was originally composed for piano and later orchestrated by Grieg.

Composition History

The opera Olav Trygvason by Grieg and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson was never completed due to disagreements between them and Grieg's subsequent work on Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt.

Composer Biography

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, a radical writer and politician, significantly raised Edvard Grieg's political consciousness as a democrat and humanist.

Historical Context

Grieg's works based on texts by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson were part of a political movement advocating for national freedom and democratic humanism in Norway, which was then united with Sweden.

Composition History

Landkjenning ('Land-Sighting') was first performed on 17 May 1872 at a bazaar in Christiania (now Oslo) to raise money for the restoration of Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim.

Composer Biography

Towards the end of his life, Edvard Grieg worried that a sole focus on 'national' elements in his work might overshadow its universal musical qualities, stating, 'I don't want to be Norwegian, exactly, and still less ultra-Norwegian - just to be myself.'