Romantic sounds from Scandinavia with Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite and Nielsen’s Aladdin Suite.
One hour filled with romantic incidental music. Naturally you recognize the Peer Gynt Suites, if only because of the famous Morning Mood or the heavenly song of Solveig. Solveig is the beloved of the wandering hero Peer Gynt, who is sent across the world, by the Nestor of Norwegian playwrights, Henrik Ibsen, to find love and happiness. At first, the story struck composer Grieg as odd, but anyway it inspired him to write music which finally became famous. The latter does not apply to the incidental music of Carl Nielsen however. His spectacular marches and dances for the play of his compatriot Oehlensläger, in which an Arabic prince is sent on a voyage of discovery, hit everyone hard as from the first note. Strangely enough, this music is rarely performed. We begin this episode of Radio Romantica with Nielsen’s foolhardy comic opera Maskarade and let ourselves be swept away.
Playlist:
- Carl Nielsen, Overture Maskarade
San Francisco Symphony conducted by Herbert Blomstedt / Decca 425 857-2 - Edvard Grieg, Peer Gynt Suite No.1, Op. 46
Morning Mood / The Death of Åse / Anitra’s Dance / In the Hall of the Mountain King
San Francisco Symphony conducted by Herbert Blomstedt / Decca 425 857-2 - Edvard Grieg, Peer Gynt Suite No.2, Op. 55
Ingrid’s Lament / Arabian Dance / Peer Gynt’s Homecoming / Solveig’s Song
San Francisco Symphony conducted by Herbert Blomstedt / Decca 425 857-2 - Carl Nielsen, Aladdin Suite
Oriental Festival March / Aladdin’s Dream and Dance of Morning Mist / The Marketplace in Isphahan / Dance of the Prisoners / Negro Dance
San Francisco Symphony conducted by Herbert Blomstedt / Decca 425 857-2
