Uploaded July 2021 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago

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-Composer: Edvard Hagerup Grieg (15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907)
-Performer: Håkon Austbø

6 Lyric Pieces Book III, op. 43, written in 1886

00:00 - I. Sommerfugl (Butterfly)
01:39 - II. Ensom vandrer (Lone wanderer)
03:18 - III. I Hjemmet (In my native land)
05:05 - IV. Småfugl (Little bird)
06:55 - V. Erotikk (Erotikon)
09:10 - VI. Til våren (To spring)

Grieg quickly discovered that his greatest talent was for short, evocative compositions. Naturally, a shift in the emphasis of his music from longer and more abstract pieces to shorter pieces took place. Even when he wrote short pieces, he tended at first to give them abstract (tempo marking) titles; his first forty piano compositions (in five sets) were titleless. He first assigned titles in 1867, in a suite he called "Lyric Pieces." This came to be Book 1 of ten sets. Each was a great success and thus delighted his publisher, particularly beginning around 1885, when Grieg turned out a set about every two or three years. Each sold out upon publication.

The first two or three movements were written while Grieg was staying in Denmark. It is "At Home", which was actually composed while longing for home: Grieg had written to his friend Frants Beyer about his wish to go out in a boat on a quiet morning. "The other day I was so full of this longing that it turned itself into a gentle song of thanksgiving. There is nothing new in it, but it is genuine and as it is really nothing other than a message to you, I enclose it here." He wrote the other four movements, including "Solitary Wanderer" (where expressed the longing he alluded to in his letter), back in Norway. "Erotikon" was inspired by his love for his wife, Nina. The final movement, "To Spring, " stands as the programmatic representative for the whole set, for, as Grieg wrote to his publisher, all six pieces comprise a set of "spring songs."
[allmusic.com]