SKU: A0.551512

1. Morning Mood, 2. Ase's Death, 3. Anitra's Dance, 4. In the Hall of the Mountain King

Grieg Background

In the first place, Edvard Grieg (1843 –1907) was a Norwegian composer as well as a concert pianist. As a matter of fact, most music historians consider him one of the foremost Romantic era composers. Consequently, his music is part of the international standard classical repertoire. Grieg moreover used Norwegian folk music in his own compositions.  Consequently, he ushered Norwegian music to transnational consciousness. Furthermore, he forged a national musical identity for Norway. It is important to realize that he did this in a manner similar to Jean Sibelius in Finland, and BedÅ™ich Smetana in Bohemia.

Legacy

Grieg is celebrated in the city of Bergen. For example, the city has erected numerous statues depicting Grieg. Specifically, the city has named a concert hall (Grieg Hall), a music school (Grieg Academy) and a professional choir (Edvard Grieg Kor) after him. As a matter of fact, there is also a museum located at his former home in Troldhaugen.

Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 (Op. 46)

Grieg wrote incidental music for the purpose of illustrating a play by Ibsen known as Peer Gynt. The play includes, in particular, the famous selection entitled, In the Hall of the Mountain King. In this composition, Grieg indeed depicts the exploits of the scoundrel, Peer Gynt. In one famous episode, for example, Peer steals a bride at her wedding. For this reason, the people chase him, but soon Peer falls, thereupon striking his skull on a boulder. He wakens forthwith in a highland bounded by angry gnomes. Consequently, the music of In the Hall of the Mountain King represents the mad gnomes taunting Peer. Therefore, each time the theme repeats it gets louder and faster. In the end, Peer surprisingly escapes from the mountain.

Holberg Suite and Misc. Summary

It must be remembered that Grieg originally wrote his Holberg Suite for the piano. In other words, he only later arranged it for strings. Further, Grieg composed by and large many songs with lyrics by famous writers such as Heine, Goethe, Ibsen, Hans Christian Andersen, Rudyard Kipling, and others. On balance, Norwegian pianist Eva Knardahl recorded altogether Grieg’s whole piano catalog on LP in 1980. These recordings were released again on CD in 2006. In any event, Grieg himself performed and recorded the bulk of these pieces toward the end of his life.

SKU: A0.533318

Première Sonate pour piano et violon
I. Modéré
II. Assez lent
III. Animé
IV. Bien allant, mais d'expression tranquille

Jacques Leguerney began the composition of his First Sonata for Piano and Violin in 1926, shortly after beginning composition studies with Nadia Boulanger. She was reportedly quite enthusiastic about the natural talent of her new student, and offered to give him private lessons to supplement her analysis classes. Leguerney was already reticent about studying composition. In an interview in 1989, he remembered his feeling at that time, saying that I found that this was useless work. If one is gifted for music, one is capable of writing harmonies. instead, Leguerney showed his Sonata to the French composer Albert Roussel, who was renting an apartment on Avenue Wagram in a building next to that of the Leguerney family. Leguerney
remembered Roussel's apartment with its dark blue walls and gilded Indian statues! Roussel encouraged his efforts and said of the second theme of the first movement: I would have liked to have written that. (J'aurais été très content d'avoir écrit ça.)
The first performance of the Sonata was given by the pianist Thérèse Cahen (1897-1944) and the violinist Hortense de Sampigny (? – 1970) in a private concert. The violinist was already a well-known concert artist. De Sampigny finished her studies at the Paris Conservatory in 1915, where she was in the class of Jules Boucherit. In 1918 she married the French author Auguste Bailly (1878-1967). From 1921, she was a member of the Trio Trillat, founded by the pianist Ennemond Trillat with the collaboration of cellist Jean Witkowski. The Trio was active in concerts and recordings in France and abroad for about thirty years. De Sampigny later taught at the Conservatory as assistant to René Benedetti. Thérèse Cahen had studied piano, harmony and counterpoint at the Schola Cantorum, where she obtained a Second Prize. She was a faithful friend and muse for Leguerney, and recruited many musicians for first performances of his vocal and chamber works. She was deported to Auschwitz on July 31, 1944, a few weeks before the Liberation of Paris.

This edition of the Sonata was performed at a private concert in Vernon (France) in July 2011 by French violinist Marion Larigaudrie and pianist Mary Dibbern.  It is based upon the autograph manuscript OL 23, on deposit at the Music Department of the Bibliothèque national in Paris.