*Peer Gynt (opera)
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) was one of the definitive leaders of Scandinavian music and his influence was great. Although composing many short piano pieces and chamber works, the work Grieg did for Henrik Ibsen stood out. Originally composing 90 minutes of orchestral music for the play, he later went back and extracted certain sections for the suites. Peer Gynt's travels around the world and distant lands are represented by the instruments Grieg chooses to use. The Peer Gynt suites are among his best-known works, however they initially began as incidental compositions.[1]
When Ibsen asked Grieg to write music for the play in 1874, he enthusiastically agreed. However, it was much more difficult for Grieg than he imagined. "Peer Gynt progresses slowly," he wrote to a friend in August 1874, “and there is no possibility of having it finished by autumn. It is a terribly unmanageable subject.”[2]
Letter from Henrik Ibsen to Grieg, January 23, 1874
"The more he saturated his mind with the powerful poem, the more clearly he saw that he was the right man for a work of such witchery and so permeated with the Norwegian spirit," his wife wrote of him and his music.[3] Even though the première was a "triumphant success", it prompted Grieg to complain bitterly that the Swedish management of the theatre had given him specifications as to the duration of each number and its order: "I was thus compelled to do patchwork... In no case had I opportunity to write as I wanted... Hence the brevity of the pieces," he said.[2]
For many years, the suites were the only parts of the music that were available, as the original score was not published until 1908, one year after Grieg's death, by Johan Halvorsen.[4]
Various recordings have been made of this music. Some recordings that claim to contain the complete incidental music have 33 selections;[5] the recording conducted by Ole Kristian Ruud is split into 49 items.[6] Both recordings include several verses from the drama, read by actors.