Grieg: Piano Transcriptions of Songs, Op. 41 / Nordic Melodies, Op. 63

Featuring

Einar Steen-Nøkleberg
Edvard Grieg

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Composer Biography

Grieg was a restless soul throughout his life, never feeling completely at peace anywhere except on the concert platform or in the Norwegian mountains.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Grieg's development as a composer was decisively influenced by Rikard Nordraak, who believed the key to Norwegian music's future lay in nationalism and folk-songs.

Composer Biography

Edvard Grieg, born in Norway in 1843, showed a strong interest in music from an early age and was sent to the Conservatory in Leipzig at fifteen.

Compositional Technique

Grieg deliberately used unfamiliar, "radical" chord progressions to suggest the vague tonality found in many folk-songs, a melodic characteristic difficult to achieve on the piano.

Critical Reception

In his later years, Grieg experienced increasing criticism from the musical "establishment" while his popularity among music-loving audiences grew.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Grieg felt that the "realm of harmony" was his dream world and that the secret depth of Norwegian folk-songs stemmed from their rich harmonic possibilities.

Performer Biography

Einar Steen-Nekleberg, the pianist on this album, won the Norwegian Critics' Prize for Best Performance in 1975 for his performance of Grieg's Piano Concerto.