In 1895, Edvard Grieg came across the book Haugtussa (The Mountain Maid) by Arne Gaborg. He immediately was fire and flame writing to his friend Julius Röntgen, “In the last few days I have been occupied with a very peculiar

Edvard Grieg met Hans Christian Andersen in Copenhagen in 1864, when the writer and poet already enjoyed considerable fame in many parts of Europe for his stories, novels, and poetry. The two artists enjoyed a close kinship as both were

Throughout his life, Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) composed a total of 181 songs. That means that excluding folk-song arrangements, Grieg composed more vocal music than piano and chamber works together. From his 4 Songs Op. 2 of 1861 to the 5

In 1900, Grieg spent some time in Copenhagen, and he wrote to a friend, “although I am currently out of the country, my thoughts are only about Norway and Norwegians, about all our youthful pugnacity up there. Yes, it is

One of my favourite quotes by Edvard Grieg reads, “Bach and Beethoven erected temples and churches on the heights. I only wanted to build dwellings for men where they might feel happy and at home.” It sounds a touch understated

From his earliest years to the concert tours in the year he died, Edvard Grieg performed as a pianist playing his own composition. He was a great pianist but not a virtuoso, and according to a biographer, “his intimate familiarity

A first work in a genre is often a hard slog in finding out how something works. Praised as ‘distinctive and admirable’ by Liszt, this string quartet by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843–1907) was the product of much hard work

In 1876, after returning from a trip to Bayreuth to see the first complete Ring cycles, Edvard Grieg and his friend John Paulson (1851–1924) travelled up and down Norway. As a treat for the poet Paulson, Grieg took 4 sonatas