Organization

Conductor

Herbert Blomstedt

Instrumentalist

Olli Mustonen

Piano

Singer

Soprano

Mao Morita

Baritone

Takashi Aoyama

Orchestra

NHK Symphony Orchestra

No. 1967 Subscription (Program B)

Tokyo

Japan

Suntory Hall

No. 1967 Subscription (Program B): Piano concerto in A Minor, op.16 Grieg (+1 More)

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Piano Concerto in A Minor, op. 16

Symphony No. 3

Approved

A father of Norwegian classical music, Grieg started piano lessons at home before studying abroad at the Leipzig Conservatory. Being trained by the pianist Ignaz Moscheles, a champion of Beethoven, and becoming acquainted with works by Mendelssohn, Chopin and Schumann there had an influence on the young student. Later in the early 1860s, he stayed in Copenhagen to study under the Danish composer Niels Gade who would also teach Nielsen (described below).
In Leipzig, Grieg heard Clara Schumann playing her husband's Piano Concerto in A minor. The Norwegian composer since avowed himself to be a great admirer of the work. While some similarities have been pointed out between the two men's concertos, especially the central key and how they start, Grieg's is surely original particularly in the treatment of folkish idioms. An excellent pianist, Grieg wrote it in his mid-twenties. After its 1869 premiere in Copenhagen brought him a first reputation as composer, he revised it several times over three decades. It became, unsurprisingly one of the most celebrated pieces of piano literature.
The first movement begins with a timpani roll crescendo followed by the dramatic entry of the soloist playing a cascade of falling octaves. Then woodwinds sing the idyllic first theme. The meditative slow movement is opened by strings utilizing mutes, a devise to make a softer sound. Without pause, the finale in sonata rondo form gives a short, brilliant passage by the pianist, who then introduces the stomping main theme recalling the "halling," a Norwegian acrobatic folk dance. The lyrical second theme appears on the flute solo. In the last stage, the time switches from triple to quadruple (Andante maestoso) to close the concerto magnificently.
Born in the Danish Island of Funen in 1865, Nielsen is considered today one of the most
essential Nordic composers. However, he didn't gain the genuine international fame in his lifetime as contrasted with Jean Sibelius, the same age as him, and their senior Grieg whose music impinged on early works of Nielsen. He studied composition under Niels Gade, Grieg's teacher, at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. While composing, he started his career as an orchestral violinist and later served as a conductor with the Royal Theatre in the capital and the Orchestra of the Copenhagen Music Society.
Nielsen left us a vast catalogue including six unconventional, inventive, beautiful symphonies (premiered on his native soil between 1894 and 1925), concertos, two operas and a profusion of songs and choral works. The pre-World War I work, his Third Symphony was written in 1910-1911 and first performed in 1912 under his own baton. The uniqueness more than anything of this unique symphony is the presence of human voices (described below) in the slow second movement.
The work's subtitle comes from the first movement's tempo and performing indication "Allegro espansivo (expansive)". The way it begins is already unique and astonishing, as the orchestra gives consecutively a wallop of the A note twenty-six times. The first sonata theme immediately follows it evoking a valiant waltz. In contrast, woodwinds gently state the tuneful second theme. The "expansive" character shifts to "pastorale (pastoral)" tone when the second movement comes. Here we hear the distant, paradisiacal vocalise (wordless song) by soprano and baritone soloists. After the scherzo-like third movement, the finale revives the "expansive" character. It opens with the hymnlike majestic theme sung by violins and clarinets in unison.
The symphony concludes in triumph with the powerful A note, reminiscent of its outset.

English

No. 1967 Subscription (Program B) by Grieg, Nielsen, From (2022/2022), Conductor Herbert Blomstedt, Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Japan

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