Delius Grieg Petrenko

Delius and Grieg

Oslo Concert Hall Concert has been played

Delius and Grieg

Music by two close friends, Edvard Grieg and Frederick Delius.

The dramatic whirl of the timpani which leads us from silence to fiery music in Edvard Grieg’s (18431907) Piano Concerto is one of the most effective and famous musical openings in the classical repertoire. With this particular bang, Grieg forged his way into European music culture, engraving himself onto musical history on which the young composer left an indelible trace. From the very first note, the piano soloist plays “Grieg’s leading motif”, a musical signature inspired by melodic turns in Norwegian folk music. Nevertheless, the clearest connection to traditional music is represented by the Halling dance rhythms in the third movement. Before the finale takes off, Grieg demonstrates further strengths: the lyrical melodies, the atmospheric harmonies, and passion in the Adagio.

One might picture fjords and mountains when one hears Grieg’s concerto, but the composer himself gazed upon a completely different landscape, far from Norway, when he wrote the piece: Sollerød in Denmark. On a musical level, Grieg also drew inspiration from other places. The concerto has much in common with Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A-minor (1845), which Grieg himself had heard as a young student in Leipzig. Grieg’s own concerto has become an equally important pillar in both Norwegian musical heritage and remains one of the world’s most famed concertos. It has been so since its world premiere, which was performed by Edmund Neupert as soloist in Copenhagen in 1869, and since Franz Liszt played it enthusiastically in Rome in 1870. It was also the very first piano concerto to be recorded on LP, by Wilhelm Backhaus, in 1909.

(In photo: Vasily Petrenko; Photo: CF Wesenberg; Text: Thomas Erma Møller; Translation: Sarah Osa)

What is played

  • Frederick Delius On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring
  • Edvard Grieg Piano Concerto

Duration

Performers

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Prices

Price groups Price
Adult 100 - 320 NOK
Senior
Student 100 - 210 NOK
Child 100 NOK

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Delius Grieg Petrenko

Oslo Concert Hall Concert has been played