Holberg Suite

Though now regarded as Norway’s favorite son, Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) actually has Scottish heritage on his father’s side. His great-grandfather fought in the Battle of Culloden, then fled to Norway in the wake of reprisals by the British crown against Scottish soldiers. Grieg’s musical heritage passed from his mother, who gave him his first piano lessons at their home in Bergen. Fortunately the boy’s precocious talents caught the attention of a famous violinist passing through town, who recommended 15-year-old Edvard for admission to the Leipzig Conservatory. The musical education in Leipzig, both inside and outside the Conservatory walls, brought polish to Grieg’s pianism and diversity to his compositions. Fame came gradually over the next twenty years largely due to the popular success of works like the A-minor Piano Concerto (1868) and incidental music for Ibsen’s Peer Gynt (1876).
From Holberg’s Time (1884), popularly known as the Hollberg Suite, started life as a piano work. Grieg was a brilliant pianist and composed mainly at the keyboard. A year after writing the suite he arranged it for string orchestra, and that is the version we will hear tonight. From Holberg’s Time has an additional subtitle, “Suite in the Olden Style,” which points to Grieg’s primary stylistic goal. His music mimics the Baroque style; the suite was specifically written to commemorate the 200th birthday of the great Danish-Norwegian author (also born in Bergen), Ludvig Hollberg. Its general tone mixes Baroque forms, including all the repeat marks and ornaments of the era, with more modern harmonic ideas. Listeners may compare it to string serenades written by Dvořák (1875), Tchaikovsky (1880), and Elgar (1892). Furthermore, with its overtly historical perspective, it calls to mind Ravel’s neo-Baroque suite Le Tombeau de Couperin composed during the First World War.
The opening Prelude, which sounds like a model for the opening movement in Ravel’s Tombeau, presents a vigorous perpetual motion texture. A violin theme emerges in the latter portions, while the galloping rhythm continues in the inner parts all the way up to the chorale-like final cadence. The following Sarabande, also in G major, is a poignant piece that strikes the right balance between old-style counterpoint and lush harmony. Along with the Air, this gracious movement is often excerpted for classical CD samplers. The third movement, in ABA form, features a Gavotte (section A) and folk-style Musette (B), complete with drone bass and typical baroque sequences. Grieg shows himself a fairly astute musicologist by specifying string articulations as a way to imitate his conception of proper baroque technique. The haunting and powerful Air, marked Andante religioso, may suggest the great “Adagio” attributed to Albinoni, which shares the same G minor key and pungent dissonances. The middle section turns to B-flat major for an achingly beautiful variation on the main theme, colored by moments of solo cello and soaring violins. At the end, Grieg adds a brilliant Rigaudon played largely by solo violin and viola. Its tender G-minor Trio section cannot restrain the energetic push to the finish.

(c) Jason Stell