Why Edvard Grieg’s most famous masterpiece began as a reluctant, patchwork theatrical chore
In short: Edvard Grieg initially found Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt an unmanageable, difficult subject. Despite his hesitation, Grieg composed 90 minutes of incidental music for the 1876 premiere. Though the production was a triumphant success, Grieg felt constrained by the theatre's rigid demands, leading him to later extract his own celebrated suites.
When Henrik Ibsen invited Edvard Grieg to compose music for his verse drama in 1874, the composer was far from enthusiastic. Grieg described the play as a terribly unmanageable subject and struggled to meet the production's deadlines. Even after the 1876 premiere in Christiania—now Oslo—was met with acclaim, Grieg remained frustrated. He complained bitterly that the theatre’s Swedish management forced him to adhere to strict timing specifications for each musical number. This compelled him to create what he called patchwork, preventing him from composing exactly as he desired and resulting in the brevity of many individual pieces.
The original score, which Grieg wrote for a large ensemble including piano, organ, harp, and a wide array of percussion, contained 26 movements. For decades, the public only knew the music through two four-movement suites that Grieg extracted from the full score years later. Suite No. 1, Op. 46, was published in 1888, followed by Suite No. 2, Op. 55, in 1893. Grieg even withdrew one movement, The Dance of the Mountain King's Daughter, from the second suite after its initial inclusion. These suites became Grieg's best-known works, yet they represent only a fraction of his original effort.
The complete incidental music was long believed lost until its rediscovery in the 1980s. Only since then has the full score been performed in its entirety. Modern recordings vary significantly in how they present this material; some versions contain 33 selections, while others, such as the recording conducted by Ole Kristian Ruud, are divided into 49 distinct items. These complete versions often incorporate verses from Ibsen's drama read by actors, offering a glimpse into the original theatrical intent that Grieg’s suites—which typically last between 20 and 35 minutes—do not capture. The full score was finally published in 1908, one year after Grieg’s death, by Johan Halvorsen, cementing the legacy of a project that once caused its creator such profound professional distress.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Peer Gynt (Grieg)
- Also: www.britannica.com — Peer Gynt | Norwegian folktale, orchestral suite, dramatic poem | Britannica
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