Taste of Scandinavia

Born only 20 years apart, Danish composer Carl Nielsen and Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg represent a fruitful tradition of skilled Scandinavian composers. Nielsen became fascinated with wind instruments at an early age, becoming a military trumpeter by 14. After hearing a rehearsal of Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante by the Copenhagen Wind Quintet, he set out to compose his own work for that instrumentation. His quintet features lighthearted and lyrical passages that perfectly highlight the voice of each instrument. Also composed out of inspiration, Edvard Grieg was commissioned to write a work celebrating the bicentenary of writer and philosopher Ludvig Holberg. The resulting five movement piano suite later arranged for string orchestra, explores a range of musical styles from the ‘Olden Style’ of Holberg’s time to the more modern music known to Grieg at the time.