Grieg Peer Gynt

 Day 26

Grieg Peer Gynt

Soloists

Malmö Chamber Choir

Malmö Symphony Orchestra

Bjarte Engeset 

Peer Gynt: 365 new pieces?

Yes of course I have know the famous pieces from Peer Gynt from school days, but this was an opportunity to listen to the whole of the incidental music. There is about 90 mins worth of music altogether - scored for a full orchestra and choir. It is a reminder that, at least in the largest centres, 19th century audiences would expect that a theatre would have an orchestra on hand, not only to play music before and after the performance but as incidental music. I doubt that there is any theatre anywhere now that could afford to put on a full production of Peer Gynt with the full musical forces that Grieg wrote for.

What an interesting experience to hear the whole thing. I do recall one of my lecturers at university saying that there was much more to Peer Gynt that the suites - it is just a pity that it has taken me the best part of 50 years to discover this for myself!

There is an astonishing variety of music here - some extended scenes and quite a lot of places where the dialogue and music come together in melodrama. Often where other composers have tried this the combination doesn't work, but here Greig paces things so well that it seems the most natural thing in the world. He uses the full panoply of orchestral colour - lots of percussion and plenty of stopped horn effects as just two examples.  Some of the supernatural music is clearly in the tradition of Wagner , Weber and Marschner  (indeed at one point there is a more or less straight lift out of the Flying Dutchman) but elsewhere we are in the world of late-romantic opera and some of the music points forward to the early twentieth century.

What is particular interesting is to hear the familiar excerpts in context. Morning Mood for example comes in the middle of the play and much earlier we hear a folk like almost modal version of the main tune as a hint of what is to come later. The death of Åse is surprisingly moving heard in the distance under dialogue, and the  Hall of the Mountain King takes on another dimension when you hear it with the wild voices that originally came with - the effect is hair raising.

This really was an enjoyable, even revelatory, afternoon's listening. Grieg tends to be looked at as a miniaturist who wrote nice but rather sugar-coated music. Peer Gynt shows just how wrong that view is - this was full blooded dramatic music which really packs a punch.