Fuck Yeah Classical

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Mikhail Pletnev

wanderer-fantasy:

Edvard Grieg - Nocturne Op.54 No.4

Mikhail Pletnev, piano

(Source: fantasyofawanderer)

musicophilia:

String Quartet in G minor, Op. 27; I. Un poco Andante - Allegro molto ed agitato

Edvard Grieg

Sølve Sigerland, violin
Atle Sponberg, violin
Lars Anders Tomter, viola
Truls Mørk, cello

I do believe that Josh sent this recording to me, so props to him. I wish I could post the whole thing. (Maybe I will?) It is very good!

After busy years in Oslo, teaching and conducting to make a living, Edvard Grieg and his wife Nina left for Hardanger in 1877. During a couple of years there, he made several masterpieces,- and among them the String Quartet in g-minor, op. 27. On hearing Grieg`s String Quartet for the first time, Franz Liszt declared :”It is long time since I have encountered a new composition, especially a string quartet, which has intrigued me as greatly as this distinctive and admirable work by Grieg”.

Grieg himself characterised the quartet as a slice out of his own life :”… concealed within it, are samples of that heart’s blood of which it is be hoped posterity will see more than a few drops.”

The musical language is rather radical, and in many ways Grieg`s quartet is a bridge between the late Beethoven quartets and Debussy’s quartet 15 years later and Bartok`s wonderful quartets of this century.

Working hard to find theme and form, Grieg at last decided to build the whole quartet on the theme from The Ibsen Song “Fiddlers”.(Op.25 nr.1). During all 4 movements this theme is the underlying material. The opening motive (octave- falling to major 7th  and  5th ) is also the main motive in a.o. a-minor concerto. The motivic core pervades the entire quartet, binding it together to form a composite whole, all the way from the dramatic g-minor introduction of the first movement to the entrancing finish in G-major of the last. (more here)

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ihatemusic1943:

Peer Gynt, opus 23 (1875)

Edvard Grieg

• Act IV: Prelude: Morning Mood (Morgenstemning)

Paavo Järvi; Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
Recorded: 09/2004 - Estonia Concert Hall, Tallinn, Estonia

From the same recording, Solveig’s Song

adagiocantabile:

Edvard Grieg - Holberg Suite   - Rigaudon ( piano ) - Joel Hastings

musichistory:

Peer Gynt, Op. 23 - Act 5: “Solveig’s Cradle Song” by Edvard Grieg [1876] performed by Barbara Bonney with Neeme Järvi and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra [1987]

After a great vacation and a hurried two days back in town, Music History is back. The song we return with is gorgeous lullaby, which feels quite fitting tonight after the storms that swept through this evening (a tornado touched down just a few miles north of my house).

Most people only know Grieg’s Peer Gynt through the two orchestral suites the composer himself pulled from the larger work - “Morning Mood” and “In the Hall of the Mountain King” being particularly popular. Grieg had in fact composed incidental music to all five acts of Henrik Ibsen’s play about the fictional Norwegian adventurer Peer Gynt.

The beautiful song posted above comes from the very end of the final act. After a life full of dangerous endeavors and personal tragedy, Peer returned to Norway. In the tense final scene Peer is surprisingly reunited with his earlier lover Solveig. After terse discussion about why they had been apart for so long, the scene ends with Solveig singing him a lullaby of reconciliation. Implicitly, Peer dies in her lap as she sings.

After hearing this recording, it’s a wonder Grieg didn’t include “Solveig’s Cradle Song” in one of the suites. It’s sublime. As far as I know, this recording by Grieg specialist Neeme Järvi is the only version of the complete incidental music to Peer Gynt currently available (though I could be wrong).

Peer Gynt Suite No. 2 op.55: I. Ingrid’s Lament - Edvard Grieg

Royal Philharmonic, Conducted by Mark Ermler

erratic69:

Edvard Hagerup Grieg (1843∼1907)
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A minor, Op.16
II. Adagio

Sviatoslav Richter, Piano
Orchestre National De L’Opera De Monte Carlo
Conducted by Lovro von Matacic

erikanize:

Edvard Grieg - Peer Gynt Suite No.1, Opus 46 In The Hall Of The Mountain King

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Peer Gynt, Op. 23 Morning by Edvard Grieg

ishyismagic:

Morning - Edvard Grieg

every morning should start off with this song