CD’s
NY CD I SALG NÅ: www.lawo.no
Spor 6: Torstein Aagaard-Nilsen: Fra Blue Traces- mp3 (8,56 MB)
SOLO CD
LE NOUVEAU GRIEG
VISIONARY MASTERPIECES BY THE MATURE EDVARD GRIEG
Lyric Pieces opus 71, Peasant Dances opus 72
PERFORMED ON GRIEG´S PIANO AT THE COMPOSER´S VILLA, TROLDHAUGEN
Available at www.mudistore.no (MUD2092), Edvard Grieg Museum, Bergen (TROLD21) and at Rune Alver´s recitals
Once upon a time - mp3 (3,57 MB)
Puck - mp3 (1,71 MB)
Halling from the Fairy Hill - mp3 (3,34 MB)
Myllarguten´s Bridal March - mp3 (3,42 MB)
SOLO CD
MOUNTAIN DANCE
VISIONARY MASTERPIECES BY THE YOUNG EDVARD GRIEG
Humoresques op 6, Sonata op 7, Picures from Folk Life op 19, Album Leaves op 28, Improvisations on two Norwegian Folk Songs op 29.
PRODUCED IN TRODSALEN CONCERT HALL, EDVARD GRIEG MUSEUM
Available at www.mudistore.no, MUDI (MUD2110), Edvard Grieg Museum, Bergen(TROLD 20) and at Rune Alver´s recitals
From Humoresques op 6 - mp3 (0,3 MB)
From Sonate op 7 - mp3 (0,3 MB)
From Pictures from Folk Life op 19 - mp3 (0,4 MB)
From Improvisations on Two Norwegian Folk Songs op 29 - mp3 (0,7 MB)
“Create your personal style !”
The legendary violinist Ole Bull provoked the young Edvard Grieg and inspired him to search for a personal style. This CD contains music basically composed in his early twenties, when he developes his celebrated musical style.
A hundred years after Edvard Griegs death, the Norwegian pianist Rune Alver makes the old grand piano vibrate and sound with memories: The very same piano that was of so great inspiration for Edvard Grieg has been used for this recording, which reflects the exceptional atmosphere in Nina and Edvard Grieg's home. This instrument was a gift to Nina and Edvard Grieg for their silver wedding anniversary 11 June 1892, a Steinway grand piano donated by music friends in Bergen.
The albums of the Lyric Pieces are published at regular intervals throughout Grieg’s life. They are his musical life companions, constantly keeping him alert, urging him to create poetic expressions for the piano. The lyric pieces are also typical expressions of Grieg’s national identity.
In the foreword to Peasant Dances op 72, Grieg writes:
They bear the stamp of an imagination that is as audacious as it is bizarre – relics from a time when Norwegian peasant culture was isolated in remote mountain valleys from the outside world and precisely for that reason have preserved their authenticity.
And in Paris – according to Halvorsen – the Peasant Dances have been discovered by some young musicians, they are infatuated by “le nouveau” Grieg. I mention this to you because it has really delighted me. Young people, you know, are the future.
Edvard Grieg in a letter to his German editor, Hinri Hinrichsen
Humoresques Opus 6 was the first work in which Grieg manifested his lifelong project. In these four pieces, composed in 1865, he is inspired to use motifs and phrases from Norwegian folk music.
The Sonata Opus 7 in four movements is very fresh and powerful, and Grieg shows his mastery of good melodies and tough harmonies. Like few others he mastered writing for the piano, almost without outward effects, but with a complex register of expression. The Sonata heralds the ingenious mastery of the Piano Concerto which was to come three years later.
Ole Bull’s early vision of Grieg’s musical genious did materialize. Grieg realized that the synthesis of his own musicality and the Norwegian folk music was to be his contribution to the building of the new Norwegian nation.