Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Piano Concerto in A minor Op.16

This Concerto – apart from Peer Gynt – is Grieg’s best-known composition. Written in 1868, it was first played in Copenhagen on April 3rd the following year. Performed shortly afterwards in Leipzig, it came under heavy fire from the local critics. Although this was no longer the city of Mendelssohn and Schumann, opinions from Leipzig could be fatal for the work’s future… The more so as Schumann was part of the quarrel. The general idea was that Grieg had followed too closely the German master’s famous Piano Concerto in A minor and the example of Chopin and Liszt. Yet what the Leipzig critics deplored most of all about the Grieg Concerto was “the absence of solid, German craftsmanship” taught in the local conservatory – of which, to add insult to injury, Grieg was a graduate! The prodigal son was in need of a good lesson.
∙ Indeed, in the first movement (Allegro molto moderato), the form is exhausted in two thirds of the course and the rest is occupied by a great solo cadenza. Nowadays, however, the Concerto is admired not for its structure as for the beauty of its themes and the brightness of the piano part. Even the very beginning is dazzling, and then it does not get any worse at all. The whole flows in a heroic-lyrical climate, in a cosy feeling of harmonious style and good taste.
∙ Movement Two (Adagio) has the shape of a song. Its beautiful, choral theme develops in strings, as ever Grieg’s forte by far. In contrast to the first movement, the entry of the piano takes place after a while and brings associations with Chopin. In the climax, the piano recites the song’s melody in an atmosphere of noble pathos.
∙ Movement Three comes attacca and consists of several longer episodes. The first (Allegro moderato molto e marcato), is based on the rhythm of a Norwegian “springing dance” (springdans). Each new melodic idea has its climax. The lyrical second episode (Andante) is introduced by flute solo. The return of the dancing episode ends in an amusing Quasi presto, yet the whole is closed by Andante maestoso – the already-known melody of the solo flute is taken up in turn by the orchestra and the piano, in the convention not of a song this time, but of a solemn hymn.

Maciej Negrey