| Piano Concerto | |
|---|---|
| byEdvard Grieg | |
 The opening bars of the piano part | |
| Key | A minor |
| Opus | 16 |
| Period | Romantic |
| Composed | 1868 (1868) |
| Movements | 3 |
| Premiere | |
| Date | 3 April 1869 (1869-04-03) |
| Location | Copenhagen |
ThePiano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, composed byEdvard Grieg in 1868, was the onlyconcerto Grieg completed. It is one of his most popular works,[1] and is among the most popular ofthe genre. Grieg was only 24 years old at the time of the composition.
The concerto is in three movements:[2]
Performance time of the whole concerto is usually about 30 minutes.[3]
Grieg scored the concerto for solo piano, 2flutes, 2oboes, 2clarinets (in A and B♭), 2bassoons, 4horns in E and E♭, 2trumpets in C and B♭, 3trombones,timpani andstrings (violins,violas,cellos anddouble basses). An earlier version called for only two horns and a tuba instead of a third trombone.[4]
The work is among Grieg's earliest important works, written by the 24-year-old composer in 1868 inSøllerød, Denmark, during one of his visits there to benefit from the climate.
The concerto is often compared to thePiano Concerto ofRobert Schumann: it is in the samekey; the opening descending flourish on the piano is similar; the overall style is considered to be closer to Schumann than any other single composer. Incidentally, both composers wrote only one concerto for piano. Grieg had heard Schumann's concerto played byClara Schumann inLeipzig in 1858, and was greatly influenced by Schumann's style generally, having been taught the piano by Schumann's friend Ernst Ferdinand Wenzel.
Grieg's concerto provides evidence of his interest inNorwegian folk music; the opening flourish is based on the motif of a falling minor second followed by a falling major third, which is typical of the folk music of Grieg's native country. This specific motif occurs in other works by Grieg, including theString Quartet No. 1. In the last movement of the concerto, similarities to thehalling[5] (a Norwegian folk dance) and imitations of theHardanger fiddle (the Norwegian folk fiddle) have been detected.
The work was premiered byEdmund Neupert on 3 April 1869, in Copenhagen, withHolger Simon Paulli conducting. Some sources say that Grieg himself, an excellent pianist, was the intended soloist, but he was unable to attend the premiere owing to commitments with an orchestra in Christiania (nowOslo). Among those who did attend the premiere were the Danish composerNiels Gade and the Russian pianistAnton Rubinstein, who provided his piano for the occasion.[6] Neupert was also the dedicatee of the second edition of the concerto (Rikard Nordraak was the original dedicatee), andJames Huneker said that he composed the first movement cadenza.[7]
The Norwegian premiere in Christiania followed on August 7, 1869, and the piece was later heard in Germany in 1872 and England in 1874. At Grieg's visit toFranz Liszt in Rome in 1870, Liszt played the notesa prima vista (by sight) before an audience of musicians and gave very good comments on Grieg's work which would later influence him. The work was first published in Leipzig in 1872, but only afterJohan Svendsen intervened on Grieg's behalf.[8]
The concerto is the first piano concerto ever recorded—by pianistWilhelm Backhaus in 1909.[9] Due to the technology of the time, it was heavily abridged and ran only six minutes.[9]
Grieg revised the work at least seven times, usually in subtle ways, but the revisions amounted to over 300 differences from the original orchestration. In one of these revisions, he undid Liszt's suggestion to give the second theme of the first movement (as well as the first theme of the second) to the trumpet rather than to the cello. The final version of the concerto was completed only a few weeks before Grieg's death, and it is this version that has achieved worldwide popularity. The original 1868 version has been recorded, by Love Derwinger, with theNorrköping Symphony Orchestra underJunichi Hirokami.[10]
Grieg worked on a transcription of the concerto for two solo pianos, which was completed byKároly Thern.[11] The premiere recording of this version was by the British piano duoAnthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow.[12]
On April 2, 1951, the Russian-born American pianistSimon Barere collapsed while playing the first few bars of the concerto, in a performance with conductorEugene Ormandy and thePhiladelphia Orchestra atCarnegie Hall inNew York. He died backstage shortly afterwards.[13] It was to have been Barere's first performance of the work.[14]
In 1882 and 1883, Grieg worked on a second piano concerto in B minor, but it was never completed. The sketches for the concerto have been recorded by the pianistEinar Steen-Nøkleberg. In 1997, the Oslo Grieg Society held its Third International Competition for Composers on the theme: of "re-imagine" Grieg's second concerto. One of the contestants, the Belgian composer Laurent Beeckmans, elaborated a full piano concerto from the sketches, which was first performed in London on 3 May 2003.[15]
Another elaboration on Grieg's sketches was completed by the Norwegian composerHelge Evju and was recorded by theNaxos label.[16] Among the other contestants the RomanianȘerban Nichifor (Concerto GRIEGoriano), the Russian Vladimir Belyayev (Second Piano Concerto), the Scottish Callum Kenmuir (Rhapsody on themes by Grieg), the American Daniel Powers (Concerto Reliquary), the German Klaus Miehling (Concert Fantasy in B minor), the New Zealander Alison Edgar (Fantasia in B minor), the Australian David Morgan (Norwegian Fantasy). The 1st prize went to the Italian Alberto Colla (Piano Concerto No. 1).
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The enduring popularity of Grieg's Piano Concerto has ensured its use in a wide variety of contexts.
The concerto was used in a sketch by the British comediansMorecambe and Wise. Originally written byDick Hills and Sid Green and performed as a two-hander in theITV seriesTwo of a Kind in 1963, the sketch was subsequently amended and used again in the Christmas edition ofThe Morecambe & Wise Show, the duo's BBC series, in 1971. The sketch featuresEric Morecambe as the piano soloist; whileErnie Wise was the conductor in the original sketch, the amended version featuresAndré Previn, then the principal conductor of theLondon Symphony Orchestra.[18] Morecambe claims he is playing "all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order". He was playing a simplified version of the correct music but in a completely inappropriate style.[19][20]
The sketch was recorded, in an arrangement by Sid Green, in 1964 for theEMI Comedy Classics album series.[21]
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