Edvard Grieg

The Abduction Of The Bride

Grieg is the most important Norwegian composer in the national-romantic period. He's dramatic talents were put to a new test when Henrik Ibsen asked him to compose the incidental music to 'Peer Gynt' in 1876. This was no easy task for Grieg, but the music he wrote became one of the major works of the 1870's. In Grieg's own lifetime the 'Peer Gynt' music scored a resounding international success thanks, not least, to the two orchestral suites which made the music accessible in the concert halls.
In this movement, The Abduction of the bride, Peer has carried Ingrid up into the mountains and he abandons her.
The heartfelt music starting with Peer tells her: to go to the devil (bar 1-4)