Edvard Grieg

Peer Gynt: Suite No. 2 (Op. 55)

The great Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's poem "Peer Gynt," one of his greatest works, tells the tale of a young man so full of bravado, exuberance of spirit, wanderlust, and wantonness, that his road will inevitably lead to perdition unless saved by a woman, much as in Goethe's "Faust." The likewise great Norwegian composer, Edvard Grieg, was asked by Ibsen in 1874 to write incidental music to accompany the play, to which Grieg reluctantly agreed. Over a decade after composing the full incidental music, Grieg extracted eight movements and divided them into two four-movement suites, both of which were highly successful and the only way one could hear the music Grieg wrote for the play for many years as the original score was not published until 1908, one year after the composer's death. "Suite No. 2" includes: I. "Ingrid's Lament," II."Arabian Dance," III. "Peer Gynt's Homecoming," and IV. "Solveig's Song." Instrumentation: 2+Picc.2.2.2: 4.2.3.1: Timp.Perc(1-2): Hp: Str (9-8-7-6-5 in set).