Nathalie Stutzmann
Nikolai Lugansky Richard Wagner
Edvard Grieg
Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Richard Wagner (1813–1883) conducted the Prelude to Act I from his opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for the first time in 1862, six years before the opera’s full premiere. This is the only Wagner opera based on historical figures, with the main inspiration being Hans Sachs—a shoemaker, poet, and composer who lived in 16th-century Nuremberg.

Edvard Grieg (1843−1907) composed his Piano Concerto in A minor in the summer of 1868 in the idyllic surroundings of Søllerød, Denmark. The following year, Norwegian pianist Edmund Neupert performed the premiere in Copenhagen. Grieg was unable to attend, but Neupert wrote to him afterward: “The triumph I celebrated was truly magnificent. Already after the cadenza in the first movement, the audience broke into a veritable storm of applause.”

Over the next 39 years, Grieg revised the concerto seven times, making around 300 major and minor changes. He completed the final version just before his death in 1907, and it remains the standard edition today. Two years later, it became the first piano concerto ever recorded, and it has retained its place as one of the world’s most beloved concertos.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840−1893) met Edvard Grieg for the first time at a mutual friend’s home in Leipzig on New Year’s Day in 1888. They immediately admired each other, both musically and personally, and kept in touch through letters that year. In the spring, Tchaikovsky wrote to Grieg that he was working on a new symphony and intended to dedicate it to his Norwegian friend.

Instead, Tchaikovsky dedicated his Hamlet Overture to Grieg, but he completed Symphony No. 5 in early autumn and conducted its premiere in St. Petersburg in November 1888. Structurally, the symphony echoes Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, moving from darkness to light—“through struggle to victory.” Symphony No. 5 has been a staple of the Oslo Philharmonic’s repertoire since the orchestra’s very first season.