Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16

Edvard Grieg: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A Minor, Op. 16.
Born: Bergen, June 15, 1843. Died: Bergen, September 4, 1907

Opening to the Grieg 

Piano Concerto in A Minor

This is the only Concerto completed by Grieg and was dedicated to the pianist Edmund Neupart (b. 1842, Christiana, d. 1888, New York), who first played it in Copenhagen on April 3, 1869. Grieg began a second Concerto in B minor in 1882-83 that exists only in sketches. While there are those who look at 19th Romanticism with disdain, many will secretly admit that the second movement of the Grieg is one of the most beautiful works written for piano and orchestra. I have included a performance of the 2nd movement by 20th century musical giant Arthur Rubinstein (January 28, 1887 – December 20, 1982), heard here with conductor André Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra in 1975 shortly before his retirement. 


After the world premiere in 1969, Neupart wrote to Grieg from Copenhagen:
On Saturday your divine Concerto resounded in the great hall of the Casino. The triumph I achieved was tremendous. Even as early as the cadenza ;in the first movement the public broke into a real storm. The three dangerous critics, Gade, Rubinstein, and Harmann, sat in the stalls and applauded with all their might. I am to send you greetings from Rubinstein and say that he is astounded to have heard a composition of such genius. He would like to make your acquaintance.
In 1879, Grieg played  it himself as a Gewandhaus concert in Leipzig. On that occasion a writer in the Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik spoke of its great color, Nordic flashes, original details and a charming mixture of major and minor, besides its echoes of Gade, Mendelssohn, and Willmers, with something of Weber and much of Liszt.
In letters home, Grieg described his experience with Franz Liszt and the Concerto as follows: He [Grieg] was eager to see if Liszt would play the concerto as sight, Grieg considering it impossible --- particularly in consideration of the cadenza. However, Liszt played the piece and stopped at one place, left the piano and with upraised arms strode across the huge cloister floor, "literally roaring out the theme." When he got a particular G in the score, "he stretched out his arms imperiously and exclaimed: G!, G!, not G sharp! Splendid! At the end he said to Grieg warmly: "Fahren Sie fort ... und lassen Sie sich nicht abschrecken! (Keep it up, and don't be intimidated!) Liszt made suggestions about amplifying the orchestration which Grieg adopted and later modified in a revised version.