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JANUARY 26,
THE MUSIC TRADE
1918
REVIEW
USE
An Analysis of the Grieg Concerto in A Minor, Which Was Recently Used
at the Concert Given in the Wanamaker Auditorium, New York, at Which
the Ampico Reproducing Piano Was Accompanied by the Rialto Orchestra
Last month we undertook to set forth a short
description of the very beautiful and fascinat-
ing concerto for piano and orchestra in G minor
composed by Camille Saint-Saens, and which
was so remarkably performed some weeks ago
in New York through the agency of a Duo-Art
record made by Harold Bauer accompanied by
the Damrosch orchestra. It will be remem-
bered that almost at the same time, an Ampico
record of Grieg's concerto in A minor was
played at the Wanamaker Auditorium in New
York, with the assistance of the Rialto Orches-
tra, the record itself having been made by the
Bohemian pianist, Marguerite Volavy. Consid-
ering the interest aroused everywhere in the
trade by these two unique performances, it
seemed well to encourage player-pianists to ac-
quaint themselves with two such charming
works, whether through ordinary rolls or by
means of special Ampico and Duo-Art instru-
ments and records. The Saint-Saens concerto
was treated last month. We now turn to Ed-
vard Ilagerup Grieg.
Amateur music-lovers and musicians alike have
always regarded the Grieg piano concerto in A
minor as one of the most fascinating and allur-
ing things of its kind, whether for the hearer or
for the performer. The melodies are fresh
and new, and the feeling they show of intimacy
with the cold clear beauty of Norwegian lands
gives them a potency all their own. Grieg is
the Norwegian musician par excellence for the
non-Xorw r eg;an world; and in spite of his ob-
vious limitations, his piano music, more espe-
cially in the smaller forms, is nearly always de-
lightful, and often witching. Indeed, such pieces
as the song "I Love Thee," the Nocturne, the
Spring Song, the "Wedding Day" and, above
all, the elfishly enchanting Peer Gynt Suite,
are enough of themselves to give the Norwegian
composer his place among the great men of
music; even though he does not stand quite
among the immortals.
It is a fact that the piano concerto of which
we are to speak and the Peer Gynt Suite pieces,
have always been excellent sellers in music roll
form. Although Grieg's name is so well known
to the casual music-lover, it often turns out that
individual acquaintance with his work is very
superficial. Hence the present remarks.
Biographical
Kdvard Hagerup Grieg was born at Bergen
in Xorway, June 15, 1843, and died in the same
city June 4, lWT'. after a career of remarkable
prosperity and popularity.
Actually, Grieg
traced back his ancestry to Scottish forbears,
for h's great-grandfather was a Scotsman,
Alexander Greig, who fled to Norway from his
native land when the sun" of the Young Pre-
tender set forever at the end of the bloody rout
at Culloden. Greig was a Jacobite and had
supported the last Stuart prince vigorously.
Fleeing from Scotland in 1745, immediately after
the defeat at Culloden, Alexander Greig set-
tled in Bergen, and started in business as an
importer of. British goods. His son and grand-
son were British consuls at Bergen and the for-
mer changed the' family name from Greig to
Grieg, conform'ng it better to the Norwegian
pronunciation. Edvard Hagerup Grieg was the
son of the latter.
Grieg's mother was a cultivated amateur mu-
sician and. gave Kdvard his first lessons. At the
age of fifteen, and on the recommendation of
the great Xorwegian violinist ( )lc Bull, young
Grieg was sent to the great conservatorium at
Leipsic and stayed there four years studying
with Richter, the harmonist; Reinecke the com-
poser, and Moscheles the pianist, who had been
teacher and lifelong friend to Mendelssohn. The
influence of Leipsic, at this time thoroughly
Mendelssohnian, may have hindered Grieg in the
development of his peculiar genius, though it
also certainly gave him the technical command
he needed for composition. After returning
home in 1862 and doing something towards the
foundation of a propaganda for a national school
of music in Norway, Grieg visited Germany and
Italy in 1865 and also in 1879 again, in the in-
terim founding a musical society in Christiania,
teaching, conducting and composing. During
the 1878 visit he had the opportunity of playing
the solo part of his piano concerto to the great
Liszt, who was then living in Rome. The
wizard of the piano took one of his generous
likings to the young Norwegian and assisted
him to make this brilliant work well known,
even helping to revise some rough spots, ac-
cording to tradition.
In 1879 Grieg was invited to play the solo part
of his concerto at one of the Gewandhaus con-
certs at Leipsic, which brought him more prom-
inently before the musical world of Europe. His
reputation was now made, and he henceforth
remained almost entirely at home with his
charming wife, the singer Nina Hagerup. Until
his death he continued to compose, occasion-
ally to play in public, and for some years con-
ducted the symphony concerts at Christiania.
His music became extremely popular, and he
undoubtedly reaped an adequate financial re-
ward for his work. He died at the age of sixty-
four very suddenly while just about to leave
home for a trip to Christiania. His life for
many years had been quietly spent at Trold-
haugen, a few miles from Bergen, on one of
those lovely fjords which run up into the deeply
indented Norwegian coast for miles and whose
cold beauty and clear charm leave an indelible
impression on all who have had the good for-
tune to see them.
His Music
Grieg's music is Norway. That is the best
and simplest way of expressing it. In the pref-
ace to an edition of Grieg's smaller pieces
Thomas Tapper reminds us of how Anton Seidl
once called Grieg a "painter of beautiful water
colors." That is an apt description. Grieg's
music is the music of the cold, beautiful Norway,
a land of short, lovely summers, and long, equal-
ly lovely winters. You will find in his music
none of the ardent passion of Italy, the warmth
of Spain or the caprice of France. Neither will
you find the stodginess of Leipsic. It is cu-
riously fascinating, and yet curiously filling, if
one may put it that way. You cannot stand too
much of it. Grieg has made use of Norwegian
folk songs and traditional country tunes wonder-
fully; and he has worked them into the classic
forms of sonata and song with great skill and
cunning. You cannot make a musical meal out
of Grieg, for he is just a bit too national, too
individual, too provincial, as it were. He has
not the universality of the immortal- But his
is particularly fine music nevertheless and ex-
ceedingly fascinating.
The Concerto
The concerto in A minor is written in the
customary three movements and these can be
obtained in most of the editions, both straight-
cut and as arranged for two pianists fliid hand-
played.
The first movement, Allegro molto moderato
(gay but in moderate time), opens with roll
of drums, ending in a brilliant high chord, which
runs out into glittering arpeggios down the
piano and then up again, leading into the charm-
ing strain of the first theme, a dainty but char-
acteristic melody in a sort of dance rhythm.
This is worked out by the orchestra and leads
to some fine passage work in which the solo
part shows off its brilliancy. The second theme
steals out, tender and gentle, like a song heard
far away up a shining fjord. The first theme
returns, the piano works in brilliant passages,
then orchestra accompanies piano in a further
statement of the first theme. There is a famous
passage following in which the first theme is
shouted out by the full orchestra while the piano
alternates with it in cascades of roaring bass
octaves. This leads rapidly into the final repe-
tition of the ma'n theme, from which springs
out, as at the first, the drum-roll, the brilliant
arpeggios and a rushing sonorous finish.
The player-pianist using a roll which contains
both the solo and the accompaniment parts in
one, will find much pleasure in working out this
movement. The main theme is light and sharp
like winter sunshine glancing from snow, and
should be played without any notion of solid
footed heaviness. The interesting part in the
middle of the movement must be looked for
where the theme is played with an accompani-
ment both above and below it. Then the con-
trast in mood between the sharpness of the first
theme, its wintry sharpness and clearness, and
the warmer yearning of the second must be ob-
served. The rolling bass octaves towards the
end must not be given too tumultuously.
Andante
The second movement, Andante Maestoso
(gently but with dignity), opens with a very
lovely Norwegian love-song theme, or such it
seems, which is played by the orchestra and is
worked out for a considerable distance until one
comes to a passage where the piano breaks in
with a sort of counter-melody, gradually work-
ing out to a fine duet-passage between the two
parts, in which the theme is set forth strongly.
Then follows a return to the quiet mood and
the movement ends in calmest tranquillity, with
a charming soft arpeggio passage for the piano
ending on a gently sounded tone in the high
treble. Clean melody and absence of roughness
must be the characteristics of this movement.
Rondo
The brilliant Rondo that ends the concerto
is extraordinarily attractive. It is built on a
lively jiggling dance which appears immediately
after the brilliant chords of the introduction, and
which can best be called, perhaps, a sort of
goblin frolic by the jolliest sort of goblins only.
The orchestra and piano alternate, but the bril-
liancy is all for the latter, which is predominant
all the way through. The movement can scarce-
ly be surpassed for glitter and sparkle and it
rushes along to its appointed end without pause
or even lies tation, in one cascade of coruscat-
ing tones. Xo wonder the pianists like it. The
ending is tremendous in its sweep and in the
very unusual method chosen to bring the wind-
up. This is one of the surprises, and a very
agreeable one at that.
Liszt knew music if any man did. When he
showed himself-pleased with Grieg's early work
he showed his discrimination. If you ever get
a chance to hear Percy Grainger, of Australia,
and of the IT. S. Army, play it, spend your last
cent, if necessary to buy a seat. For Grieg
taught that long-legged wonder how to do it;
Grieg himself.