Recording from 12. Feb 2015

Grieg's Symphony

In 1863 Edvard Grieg travelled to Copenhagen, where he met the Danish composer Niels W. Gade who encouraged Grieg to write a symphony. He completed the symphony one year later, and three of the movements were premiered in Copenhagen the same year. The complete symphony was played by the Bergen Philharmonic 19 January 1865. Al together the symphony was played five times, the last time in 1867. Grieg then listened to Johan Svendsen's symphony, and he was so impressed by what he heard, that he withdrew his own symphony from the public domain. ''Never to be performed'' he wrote on the score. Then, more than a hundred years later, the symphony was again performed - in Moscow, without any official permission to do so. The score was immediately made public, and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra recorded the symphony soon after.