Grieg in Hardanger – Geir Botnen

Grieg found inspiation in beautiful Hardanger

Hardanger constitutes a long and important chapter in Edvard Grieg´s biography. Here, between the mountains and the fjords, his creative powers were set free after a lengthy period of artistic barrenness. On numerous occasions Grieg gave expression to how much Hardanger meant to him as both artist and person. He had been overwhelmed by the grandeur of the scenery, and between the mountains and the fjord he found the peace he needed to release the musical ideas that he had long felt were being bottled up inside him. But it was not only the Hardanger scenery that stimulated him. It was here he came to know the fiddlers who could play folk music as it should be played. Hearing folk music in a district that was the home of the Hardanger fiddle must have strengthened him in his belief in the value of this very folk music as a means of breathing new life into Norwegian music in general.

During his time in Hardanger, Grieg would write and complete several works, not least the “Andantino serioso” from “Four Album Leaves”, one of his most felicitous piano compositions with its stylized and very Norwegian rhythmical accentuation, the “Improvisations on 2 Norwegian Folksongs” and the catchy “Norwegian Dances for Four Hands”, all performed by Geir Botnen on this recording – with helping hands from Jens Harald Bratlie on the latter. Furthermore, the experienced pianist, with folk music flowing through his veins, performs the fresh and atmospheric Holberg suite and not least Grieg´s wondrously beautiful Opus 66, “Norwegian Folk melodies”, which includes the superb and widely celebrated “Gjendine´s Cradle Song”.