Grieg: 8 Lyric Pieces

Description

Of all Grieg's piano music, it is the "Lyric Pieces" (EB 8832) that enjoy the greatest popularity. These character pieces, which are very varied in their difficulty and their length, preoccupied the composer throughout his creative life.

The easiest pieces from the first three books (Op. 12, 38 and 43) have been chosen for the present volume. in the musical sense, however, they are by no means light-weight. Only someone who has made the art of playing expressively in the Romantic style his own with the help of Schumann's "Scenes from childhood" (EB 8436) will be able to interpret this poetry filled with the soul of nordic peoples appropriately.

Interpretative indications have been partly added to; fingerings and the distribution of the music between the hands have, as far as possible, been adapted to smaller hands. Sensitive use of the pedal and a "tempo rubato" imbued with the sense of the music are prerequisites.

Heinz Walter, Salzburg, Summer 1977

Pieces

• Nos. 2-4 & 6 from Lyric Pieces (Book I), Op. 12
• Nos. 2 & 6 from Lyric Pieces (Book II), Op. 38
• Nos. 1 & 2 from Lyric Pieces (Book III), Op. 43