"Bon bons wrapped up in snow" was Debussy's description of Grieg's music. The spectacular beauty of the Norwegian fjords and mountains shone through his work, as did his conceptions of the lifestyles and folk music of the people around him. When the renowned Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen asked Grieg to compose incidental music for the stage version of Ibsen's dramatic poem Peer Gynt, it was with mixed emotions that Grieg accepted the commission. Ibsen's view of the character of the Norwegian people, as expressed in his play, differed from Grieg's. Nevertheless, the composer was anxious to work with the great writer, and the assignment was financially rewarding.
As the music took shape, Grieg warmed to his task and delivered more than 20 pieces to accompany Ibsen's scenarios. As years went by, Grieg's wonderful music more or less eclipsed the play itself.
Encouraged by the acclaim given his work, Grieg selected four of the pieces for a concert suite. Its success, in turn, encouraged him to select four more for a second suite. The two suites are possibly the composer's most popular and most-played works. The first, the more popular of the two, is the one that will be heard at the January 24 concert.
All of the pieces in the Suite No. 1 are well known and are equally at home in purely classical or "Pops" concerts. The Morning Mood is Grieg at his lyrical best. Aase's Death is a melodic adagio, or elegy, for muted strings. Anitra's Dance trips lightly through a delicate mazurka. The final movement, In the Hall of the Mountain King, marches defiantly through a description of Peer Gynt's entry - and flight from - the lair of the trolls of Norway's folklore.
Howard Hanson was American to the core, but his music revealed his Scandinavian roots, upbringing, and early influences - so much so that he has been called "The American Sibelius". The comparison is apt; the music of both suggests the harsh beauty of the northlands. It is heartfelt, restrained, dramatic, romantic, expressive, melodic, and sometimes melancholy. These are Nordic elements common to the works of Grieg (Norway), Sibelius (Finland), and Hanson (the American of Swedish descent).
Hanson wrote seven symphonies, in addition to a large variety of other types of music. The best known and most popular was the well titled "Romantic", Symphony No. 2. The Third Symphony, while similarly passionate, was more closely related to the First ("Nordic") than to the Second.
Wrote the composer, "The Third Symphony springs definitely from the North, and has its genesis in the composer's reverence for the spiritual contribution that has been made to America by the sturdy race of northern pioneers who as early as 1638 founded the first Swedish settlement on the Deleware, and who were in later centuries to constitute such a mighty force in the conquering of the West."
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837)
JAMES DOOLEY, Trumpeter
Clearly classical in essence, Hummel's work falls on the borderline between epochs. While it contained romantic elements, it was considered to be among the finest examples from the last years of Classicism. He was, states one biographer, a curious combination of the old composer-craftsman and the new composer-entrepreneur. He turned out volumes of work as part of his employment, and also freelanced for commissions, struggling to meet the demand. His music is elegant, full of good melodies.
Hummel's trumpet concerto is not only one of his most popular and well-known works, it is also a favorite of the whole library of works for the trumpet, and a real challenge technically for the soloist.