Grieg - Lyric Pieces (complete)
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
- Short, lyric character pieces were very much in vogue in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, especially so in Scandinavia. Edvard Grieg was an undisputed master of the genre, and his ten books of Lyric Pieces, with a total of 66 items, span the better part of his composing career. More at home in smaller forms than in large formal structures, composing these pieces came natural to Grieg, to the extent that he half-jokingly complained in a letter to his close friend, the Dutch composer Julius Röntgen : "... I have been lyric once again. Can't you please cure me of this affliction ?".
With some exceptions, the Lyric Pieces are of small scale and modest ambition, which has ensured them a prominent place in every amateur pianists' repertoire. Yet, their ever-fresh inspiration, distinct Nordic flavour, and occasional flashes of virtuosity offer great opportunities for the enterprising concert pianist.
I recorded this complete set in march-may 2016, and took off the 4 separate videos for Books I - IV which I had already uploaded here. It supersedes my earlier set from 2007 on pianosociety.com (the mp3's there have been updated, too). I hope these can be enjoyed, there's probably not another another single-video Lyric Pieces complete set on YT.
Chris Breemer, piano
buymeacoffee.c...
Book I - 8 Lyric Pieces, Op.12 (1864-67)
Fräulein Betty Egeberg gewidmet
0:00:20 Arietta
0:01:46 Waltz
0:03:38 Watchman's Song
0:06:17 Elfin Dance
0:07:16 Folk Song
0:08:52 Norwegian Melody
0:09:52 Album Leaf
0:11:45 National Song
Book II - 8 Lyric Pieces, Op.38 (1883-88)
0:13:20 Berceuse
0:16:21 Popular Melody
0:18:23 Melodie
0:20:53 Halling (Norwegian Dance)
0:21:48 Jump Dance (Norwegian Dance)
0:23:21 Elegie
0:25:48 Waltz
0:26:54 Kanon
Book III - 6 Lyric Pieces, Op.43 (1886)
Herrn Professor Isidor Seiss gewidmet
0:31:42 Butterfly
0:33:40 Solitary traveller
0:35:40 In my native country
0:37:37 Little bird
0:39:28 Erotikon
0:41:59 To the Spring
Book IV - 7 Lyric Pieces, Op.47 (1886-88)
Fräulein Elisabet Hernemann gewidmet
0:45:14 Valse-Impromptu
0:48:22 Album-leaf
0:52:09 Melodie
0:55:32 Halling (Norwegian Dance)
0:57:09 Melancholie
1:00:42 Norwegian Dance
1:02:17 Elegie
Book V - 6 Lyric Pieces, Op.54 (1889-91)
Herrn Julius Röntgen gewidmet
1:04:58 Shepherd's boy
1:09:00 Norwegian Peasant March
1:12:52 March of the dwarfs
1:16:08 Notturno
1:20:09 Scherzo
1:23:39 Bell ringing
Book VI - 6 Lyric Pieces, Op.57 (1890-93)
Herrn Hermann Scholtz gewidmet
1:27:25 Vanished days
1:33:26 Gade
1:37:31 Illusion
1:41:09 Secret
1:46:20 She dances
1:49:36 Home-sickness
Book VII - 6 Lyric Pieces, Op.62 (1893-95)
1:53:25 Sylphide
1:55:15 Gratitude
1:58:56 French Serenade
2:01:38 Brooklet
2:03:41 Phantom
2:06:55 Homeward
Book VIII - 6 Lyric Pieces, Op.65 (1896)
2:09:49 From early years
2:15:22 Peasant's Song
2:17:06 Melancholy
2:21:07 Salon
2:23:31 Ballad
2:26:29 Wedding day at Troldhaugen
Book IX - 6 Lyric Pieces, Op.68 (1897-99)
2:33:45 Sailor's song
2:35:20 Grandmother's minuet
2:37:38 At your feet
2:41:00 Evening in the mountains
2:43:56 At the cradle
2:46:21 Valse mélancholique
Book X - 7 Lyric Pieces, Op.71 (1901)
Frau Mien Röntgen gewidmet
2:50:26 Once upon a time
2:54:25 Summer's eve
2:57:08 Puck
2:59:18 Peace of the woods
3:05:01 Halling (Norwegian Dance)
3:08:45 Gone
3:11:05 Remembrances
Grieg is my favorite composer. His music is so expressive of different moods. I don't need to see a picture. What is in my thoughts is better than any painting or movie.
Now he tells me ! I could have saved so much time here searching for images :D
I agree to some extent but isn't it nice that someone took the trouble to collect all of these beautiful scenes to provide an alternative?
To continue my thoughts: I didn't realize how many of E. Grieg's Lyric Pieces I hadn't heard until now. What a treasure to be saved by Google.
What a beautiful project to put all the Lyric pieces in one video. Hats off!
Thank you :) Enjoy the music !
For years I've heard only the chestnuts of the lyric pieces. Now you have filled in the blanks
Wow! So much music. Respect
A "tour de force", really... When I was in Denmark, my father asked me to try to get the integral of the Lyric pieces of Grieg... almost 20 years ago, time passed, my father died, but my promise to at least hear this masterpiece remained. Today I feel lucky ending this 20 yrs search. Thank you so much, and compliments. You are a great pianist. Respectfully. GK.
Many thanks for the compliment Geoff ! This integral set proves to be very popular and much appreciated :)
Not only a wonderful rendition of these tiny masterpieces but also a beautiful and representative survey of pictures. Thank you very much.
Thank you ! It was quite a job to find an image somehow relating to each piece.
Truly beautiful and sensitive performances of these 'little' masterpieces; thank you!
You're welcome, and thanks for the feedback ! It amazes me how popular my recordings seem to be.
Thanks for such amazing music. You play Grieg incredidbly. Greetings from Argentina!
Thank you for the nice feedback ! Happy to hear that Grieg (and my playing of his music) is appreciated in Argentina as well. It goes to show how universal his appeal is.
This comprehensive set is simply delightful. I keep coming back to it. A full range of emotions embodied in the music, thoughtfully complemented by evocative images. Thank you Chris - this is a thing of beauty .
Thank you Mark, much appreciated and great to hear you enjoy this set ! Seeing all the positive feedback I must be doing something right here. I'm glad you mention the imagery - finding an image to relate to every piece is a time consuming and sometimes arduous task
About 1976 I got a Vox Box of the 10 books of lyric pieces. I also got the sheet music and started to play these. This was my musical education. I owe everything musically to Grieg, my first love.
wonderful nordic lyrica pieces!!
without adds interruptions!! cheers!!
Only if you have AdBlocker :)
I love these! One of my favourites "In my native country", the third piece of (III) Opus 43, has a really catchy melody. Some of the visuals are lovely too!
Thank you ! Glad you like these.
Thanks for this!
It was my pleasure !
Grieg's music always takes me to Sylvan heavens, ones that I have been to and others that my imagination makes up. Definitely one of my top 3 composers.
Grieg seems to be everyone's favorite composer.
I don't really have one. There are so many that I love dearly, and Grieg is "just" one of them.
lovely!
Thanks :)
wait a second...
@@toeless_ant7688 oh hello pele, didn't expect you here lmao
@@qalaphyll yeah I do research on stuff. Other wise I wouldn't be checking out Czerny, which led me to Asriel Kujo, which lead me to more classical people (like you, Takureido, Ryacoli, etc (it's just the comment section chain lol) I swear I'm not a stalker or anything it's just a coincidence
@@toeless_ant7688 I believe that you're not a stalker XD don't worry
This is gold, im so happy i found this composer and your interpretations. Thank you very much.
Thanks ! And you are welcome.
Wow! Amazing job... Thank you for uploading it
You're welcome. Thanks for the feedback !
Monumental effort!
💪😁
A wonderful and very long cycle this of the Lyric Pieces, played with taste and emotion, trying to characterize the various inspirations that bring Grieg from the salons to the most typical Natural landscapes.... bravo Chris! This was a important work of interpretation! Thanks a lot.
Thank you ! This was my second recording of the Lyric Pieces, maybe not perfect but a lot better than the first attempt.
Complimenti, un degno omaggio alla Musica e al genio di Grieg.
This is incredible!!! Hats off to you man
Thank you !
I just love Grieg's music
Don't we all !
why did l know these charming works as a classic lover. Deeply touched.
I don't know why 😉 But I'm glad to hear you appreciate my recordings.
This is a beautiful gem. Thank you Sir for your beautiful interpretation.
Currently studying Butterfly. I’m at the first year of conservatoire and I love this composer.
You're very welcome ! And thanks for the compliment 😊 Butterfly is a great and rewarding piece, both to study and perform. It sounds harder than it is, on the other hand it's not as easy as it seems 😁
This level of dedication to a complete set is amazing , so much respect for you! I can only imagine the effort spanning decades, tackling one piece after the other! you play these beautifully
Thank you Sam ! Yes I have played all these pieces for decades. Recording them was not a great hardship, but it always takes more time than expected to iron out the last creases. I'm very happy with all the positive feedback on this set :)
You’ve been the sound track in my wood shop for the last week.
That's great to hear !
I'm impressed you recorded the whole thing, Woah!!
Thanks for the feedback. I know these pieces so well, and love most of them. It's a mixed bag, some are a bit trivial and/or repetitive, and some are absolute gems. I hope I have given each of them enough TLC ;-)
Kudos to you dear Sir. If everyone could devote three hours a day playing Grieg, I have no doubt in my mind, crime would go down, wars would diminish, even cease, discrimination and hate among human beings would seem an absurd notion. If only...
Indeed so. I too have always thought that the world would be a better place if people listened to real (i.e. classical) music instead of the stupid, aggressive, and mind-numbing stuff they do.
Lovely. Such a pleasure to listen to these unfold throughout a restful afternoon. Thank you so much for giving us the whole set.
Many thanks for the feedback ! It was my pleasure 😀
Un'opera pregevolissima
This is excellent work, thank you for taking the time to do this! The links to each track is wonderful :)
You're welcome, glad you like it !
Bedankt, Danke schön, Thank you. !!
My pleasure :)
These are very beautiful piano pieces!! Grieg had a true genius for melody!!
Yes !
Estas Grabaciones Son Verdaderas Joyas !!! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Ellas son de hecho !
Thank you for playing those lovely pieces.
It was my pleasure ! I've played them all my life, recorded them twice, and will probably do so again one day.
Can you upload some of Debussy's Piano pieces please as I also love these as well.
So wunderschön! Vielen Dank :-)
Danke !!!
Grazie Maestro!
Grazie lei 😊
You're an excllent pianist, and this is one of my favorite albums of all time (It is basically a 19th century album), and one of my favorite sets of pieces to play on the piano myself. This is one of the best recordings of his lyric pieces I have ever heard, amazing job!
Thanks Matthew ! I'm glad you think this is a good complete set. I've done my best to give each piece its due.
You don't have to look at the pictures, Harvey. Chris, a monumental piece of work. Thank you for your efforts. Much appreciated and the music was beautiful.
Thanks for the feedback ! You are welcome :)
What a wonderful tribute. Thank you for uploading this video of the complete Lyric Pieces. :)
It was my pleasure !
Beautiful music and playing. Thank you for sharing
Thanks, you're welcome !
Congratulations. Thanks to Post..
You're welcome.
Great effort to make this video possible. Thank you so much for sharing it to Grieg lovers like me, and hopefully to the rest of the world. I'm studying right now the Piano Concerto op. 16 and I hope I will add this wonderfull lyric pieces to my repertoire. Once again, great job and thank you so much.
Thanks and you're welcome ! Good luck with the concerto. I used to play through it long ago, it works quite well in the solo version. While it's not the most difficult of romantic concertos, it is certainly not to be sniffed at. I always found some passages very tricky.
Chris Breemer totally agree with you. The Coda of the 3rd movement is a really technical demanding passage. However it is not as brilliant as the rest of romantic concertos, so it is much more intimistic and introspective piece, what I think is the really essence of Grieg's music. (Sorry for my English).
Nothing wrong with your English ! Grieg's piano writing is intimate by nature, but can occasionally be brutally demanding (e.g. the Ballade and the last Halling from the Lyric Pieces).
The Ballade is awesome! I hope you will share more recordings like this. Have a nice time! :)
I studied the Ballade intensively with my former teacher with the aim to record it. But then I stopped lessons and got distracted. So much to do, so little time !
Beautifully played! Really enjoyed it! Thanks and more power Chris Breemer!
Many thanks, great you enjoyed them !
Amazing! My favorite pieces are Puck and March of the Dwarfs
Thanks ! My favorite is Silence of the Woods.
bravo, bravissimo!!!
Thank you !!!
What a beautiful art work you made. Both visually and musically. Have a wonderful day!
Thank you so much ! Such feedback is very inspiring. Have a great day too !
I love at the cradle & summers eve
Summer Evening is one of the best for sure !
I like Open before sleeping,Grieg he my favorite composser But now I practicing Concerto in A minor his piece
Magnifico lavoro. Un grande, gradito impegno per il piacere nostro.
Grazie Chris.
Thank you Salvatore :) Some of these are ok, and some I am not at all satisfied with. It is partly my old clunky Gaveau to blame (and partly the old clunky fingers I guess).
Amazing! I'll definitely come back to this in the future
Please do :)
Beautiful job! Thank you for sharing this.
Thanks, and you are welcome !
Awesome touch!
I wish it were true ! But thanks ;-)
Prachtig en ook nog een goede hulp. Blij mee !
Dat is fijn om te horen :)
This is great thank you so much for recording the whole set
It was my pleasure.
Thanks for uploading!
Thanks a lot!! :))
You are welcome !
There's another complete set of these miniature masterpieces played by Hakon Austbo which is more warmly recorded and more spontaneous in expression than this excellent straightforward set of performances.
Oh, I'm sure there are many more complete Lyric Pieces recordings by professional pianists, each of them better recorded and played than mine. If I were to record them now, they would be much better, but still not competitive.
🥰❤❤❤❤❤
Personally, I like the second book more than the others. It’s the most beautiful and it has maybe the best piece ever written by Grieg (melody). Although your playing makes all the pieces better.
Thanks for your feedback ! Interesting you prefer book II and especially the Melodie. Personally, I find more beauty, adventure and depth in the later books. But of course each Grieg piece is a gem, and I strive to treat them as such.
This is great
Thanks !
Great recording and interpretation, Chris! Congratulations!! Just out of curiosity, what gear did you use (mics - brand and model - and recorder), and how were they phisically disposed in relation to the piano and the room itself? Was there any kind of post-processing? Thanks in advance!
Thank you João ! I use a Tascam DR-2 portable WAV recorder with its built-in microphones. The sound quality of these mics is very decent but of course they are not as sensitive as dynamic or condenser microphones. If I had a better instrument, and could play better, I would probably invest in a pair of good microphones. Although it's a hassle, a portable WAV recorder is very handy. Yes I do post-processing, for two purposes : 1) cutting out errors or blemishes. and 2) to add some reverb so it sounds more like a real concert hall recording. The recorder is located about half a meter beyond the far end of the grand. Though these days I put it on a tripod close to the inward curve, which seems to be the usual position.
Well done!
Thank you !
Hehe, didn't know I allready commented before... I also played "Arrietta" on this album: ua-cam.com/video/sA5jIJT9D-Y/v-deo.html
Beautifully performed- thank you!
And your piano! What make is it? Beautiful sound.
Thank you ! It is a Gaveau baby grand of ca. 100 years old. It sure had a distinctive timbre.
14:00 is my favourite.
I'm so happy I found this! What a joy to listen to! However, I was looking for a piano piece from Grieg that I thought was one of his lyric pieces but it's not here. I think the key is E-minor and the German title is "Auf den Bergen" (=on the mountains) - it has nothing to do with Evening in the mountains. It's incredibly hard to find a recording of it, which is weird because it's very catchy. In the beginning both hands play the main theme which builds up to total epicness! Can anybody help?
Found it myself... It's the mountain dance in opus 19
Thanks for the feedback, and great you enjoy my renditions ! Op.19 is a wonderful set indeed, and I think unjustly neglected. I've often thought of recording it but somehow it never happened. There would be some work to do, as these pieces are not at all easy.
darn I wish this was more spontaneous so there is room for deeper interpretation
Yes it could be more spontaneous. And yes there is room for deeper interpretation, whatever that is. But do you kind of equate the two ? Personally I don't mistake spontaneity for depth. Only the very greatest can combine the two. I'm alas not one of them.
Sounds great!. What temper is the piano tuned to?
Thanks. I don't know what exact pitch it's tuned to, I don't really care about that. IIRC the last tuning was some months ago when I recorded these.
Canción del Sol de Media Noche, como quisiera verla de nuevo, hace ya tantos años estrenada en el antiguo cine Rex, al frente del parque Central en San José. Esa biografía de Edward Grieg... sin embargo no la encuentro en la red. ¿Quién me podría ayudar?
Rubinstein está ahora en la eternidad tal como Grieg gracias a UA-cam...
Sorry, I have no idea about that movie. Just in case you mean "Song of Norway", that is on UA-cam ua-cam.com/video/7xdJAsJbwGc/v-deo.html albeit with Korean subtitles.
Just letting you know, many of the timestamps in the description are wrong. Amazing video nonetheless!
Indeed, I see it's a bit of a mess in places ! I'll clear it up. Thanks for the comment !
I've corrected all the wrong timestamps ! There were about 5 or 6. Thanks again for reporting it, I wish more people would to that. I also spotted one wrong title (on "Shepherd's Boy") but I'd need to recreate and re-upload the video for that. Too much hassle.
@@ChrisBreemer Thank you! This video is extremely useful as I am writing an essay on the Lyric Pieces and yours is the only complete/accurate performance I have found.
@@user-td4do3op2d You're welcome ! I don't know about accurate (it's probably not always), but it is certainly complete :)
Can you give me the complete trackings?
What is it you want ?
Quel est ou sont les noms des peintres qui illustrent parfaitement les pieces lyriques ?
It's a good question... but I'm afraid I did not keep the titles. I should have done, as it took me ages to find images to best fit all the individual pieces.
三个小时的人生
Where did you get the paintings? What is the name of the one with the grandmother and children?
I spent a long time on Google image search to try and find images relevant (if possible) to the piece. Of course I don't remember where each one came from. If you take a screenshot and feed the JPG file into Google image search it will most probably find it for you.
www.kongehuset.no/artikkel.html?tid=101270
*****
That's it. Thank you.
I loved the video by the way
Damn, while listening closely to each track to decide which ones to play myself, I keep losing track. It s because there are so many disturbing things happening HAHA
What disturbing things ?
@@ChrisBreemer Nothing related to the music. It was meant to be a pun.
What kind of piano are you using? A Kimball?
It's a Gabriel Gaveau about 100 years old, but with new hammers and strings. See one of my other videos (e.g. ua-cam.com/video/8iHsWzi6kbI/v-deo.html) for a look.
Wat een werk...alle lyrische Stucke...Hulde....I don't want to be rude, but your skill deserves a better grand piano. Your grand is a bit out of of tune and a bit harsh. And try some more emotion...a little bit more rock & roll. That's what Grieg meant and what is Norway all about.
Yes, a better grand, that would be nice. I wish I could afford it (and had the space for it). As things stand, the Gaveau will have to do. Its sound is not to everyone's taste and it does go out of tune more easily than a Yamaha or Steinway. As for rock and roll, I think I'll pass on that - even though I do like the Stones ;-)