Considered by many to be Norway’s greatest composer and pianist,
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway on June 15, 1843. His mother was a professional pianist who began teaching him at the age of six. At thirteen, he began studies at the Leipzig Conservatory. In the spring of 1860, he survived a life-threatening lung disease. The following year he made his debut as a concert pianist, in Karlshamn, Sweden. In 1862, he finished his studies in Leipzig, and held his first concert in his home town of Bergen, where his program included Beethoven's Pathétique so
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nata. In 1868,
Grieg met
Franz Liszt and encouraged by the Hungarian nationalist composer, Greig advocated a school of music based on Norwegian folk music. Grieg's deep love of both the beautiful landscape and the colorful folklore of his homeland found gorgeous expression in his music. In general, he was most accomplished in writing in the smaller forms of music - piano, pieces, chamber music, and songs, for example - rather than in symphonies or concertos. As a result, he is often referred to as a "miniaturist", which, in Grieg's case, is by no means a criticism. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt (which includes Morning Mood and In the Hall of the Mountain
King), and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.
Edvard Grieg died in the autumn of 1907, aged 64, after a long period of illness. His funeral drew between 30,000 and 40,000 people out on the streets of his home town to honor him. Following his wish, his own funeral march for Rikard Nordraak was played in an orchestration by his friend Johan Halvorsen. In addition, a funeral march by
Frederic Chopin was played. His and his wife's ashes are entombed in a mountain crypt near his house, Troldhaugen Although Grieg's smaller scale pieces are the most successful musically, the Piano Concerto is his most popular and still frequently performed. The slow movement, with its folk-like melodies, is perhaps its most successful feature and one that modern composers and classical music lovers alike still revere to this day.
