Edvard Grieg

Sent to the Leipzig Conservatory at fifteen, Edvard Grieg came away with a thorough German training and a lasting sense that it was not entirely his own; the friendship with Rikard Nordraak turned him towards Norwegian material, and he worked with Scandinavian writers. The Piano Concerto in A minor brought fame early, and the incidental music for Ibsen's Peer Gynt later supplied two orchestral suites. Behind them stand the sixty-six Lyric Pieces, written across a lifetime, the Holberg Suite, the String Quartet in G minor, three violin sonatas and a large body of songs. Born in Bergen in 1843, he died there in 1907. In 1865 he gave his future wife four settings of Hans Christian Andersen, Melodies of the Heart, as an engagement present. He wrote more than a hundred and fifty songs, set to Norwegian, Danish and German poets; Nina Grieg was an interpreter of his songs.