Critic book event. Jérôme Bastianelli: Edvard Grieg (Acts Sud)

The trajectory of the Norwegian composer EDVARD GRIEG (Originally from Bergen, born June 15, 1843) is the romantic epic to the measure of the one who was his model and the revealer of his vocation with his parents, the illustrious violinist Ole Bull Nicknamed “The Paganini of the North” (also born in Bergen and 30 years his elder): it is he who detecting the artistic temperament of the young Edvard, convinces the father (good pianist) to absolutely encourage his gifts for music and composition (1858). Also aware by his mother (pianist and singer), the young Edvard will therefore learn the profession at the conservatory of Leipzig… Before that of Copenhagen Where he frequents Niels Gade and Jpe Hartmann…

Among the authors of late romanticism, between his native Scandinavia and the venerated Germanic authors, Grieg stands out however of his many colleagues, by his singular, unique, powerful and personal temperament that the author-biographer, Jérôme Bastianelliknow how to specify page after page.
It is no coincidence that Maurice Ravel admits that not a score he wrote, is unrelated to the influence of … Grieg (the 2 men met in Paris in 1894 when the young French composer could collect Grieg himself, precious and fair appreciations to correctly play one of the Norwegian dances). Sublime tribute for the contemporary of Brahms and Tchaikovski (which he kicked simultaneously during a supper remained famous… in Leipzig on January 1, 1888); A major esteem and also welcome for the author of Peer Gynt (his most famous score, inspired by the play by Ibsen, completed the year of the creation of Carmen, in 1875) whose many French people shunned the value, being careful to decrease genius (it is indeed necessary to read what Pierre Lalo or especially Debussy, Vachard and Aigre, concerning the works of Gieg, write in Paris in 1903…), so on his provincial, folk, “vulgar” style (!). No French or so little (including the relevant fauna, like the young Ravel as De Bartok too) understood the poetic originality of Grieg, measured how his magician music in reality erased the satirical nature of the play by Ibsen, creaky or even caricatured and so critical of the Norwegians (Peer Gynt is an antihero and the love that Solveig is wearing him …).

The biographer whose assiduous or enlightened reader of the collection published by Acts Sud previously read his biographies dedicated to Tchaikovski, Bizet, Mendelssohn and Federico Monpou, finds this synthetic spirit, however rich in relevant developments on major partitions.

In 13 chaptersGrieg, fascinating and unclassifiable thus arises in the sincerity of his personal genius: the alchemist who deciphers the inspiring movements of the Divine Nature; The bard and the poet who, like the Finnish Sibelius in his refuge in Ainola, settled in the heart of the natural pattern, in his house “Troldhaugen”, not far from Bergen (with his wife Nina) whose construction ended in 1885. It is mentioned – an unsuspected episode, of his extra -combination differences (including an idyll with the young painter “Leis”, 1882…)… The work is approached in clarity and in chronology, since its first significant partitions (Lyric parts for piano alone …) until Symphonic dancess, so little known and yet of an authentic extraordinary orchestral breath, without omitting, his chamber music (including the 2 quartets), the famous and immediately celebrated Concerto for piano and orchestra (1868) which brought him success and estimates on a European scale.

At the end of the text, are to savor the essential and essential “annexes”, complements always very useful for the understanding of man, his work, their context: major chronological landmarks, the lighting of the discographic entitled “discographic elements” (which among others indicate the best inspired performers such as Bernstein et Guillaume Tourniiaryalongside Esa-Pekka Salonen (to peer gynt); Leif Ove Andsnes et Maris Jansons For the piano concerto; Neeme Järvi et The Gothenburg Symphonic Orchestra For the integral of symphonic pieces … Synthetic and essential biography.