Grieg in Performance - International Research Seminar 2022

This seminar’s aim is to shed new light on the performance traditions related to Edvard Grieg in the context of 19^th century historical performance-studies, ‘historical informed performance (HIP) and the analysis of historical recordings. The research field on 19^th century historical performance practice has increased immensely during the recent decades. However, there still exist few studies examining Grieg from the perspective of performance practice, despite of his obvious significance as composer-performer and even one of the pioneers of early recording. This seminar’s goal is hence to increase our knowledge and understanding of interpretive practices related to Grieg, and how they developed, transmitted, diversified during the 20^thcentury. Accordingly, Grieg’s own historical recordings and those with performers closely related to him performing his works deserve special attention and will be a main theme of the seminar. Topics related to this are:

• Issues and gains in reconstructing Grieg’s performance style with focus on his chamber music for strings (violin sonatas and cello sonata) and his works for piano solo.
• Issues of analyzing Grieg’s performance style as it is documented in various historical sources
• The value of historical recordings for understanding Grieg’s compositional poetics ‘beyond the score’   
• Grieg’s performance style in the context of the influences, schools, and traditions of 19^th century pianism
• History of effect of Grieg as a performer, the formation of national traditions, and the history of stylistic developments

The seminar will be hold at Troldhaugen and the Grieg academy, with period instruments available for active participants. Among the invited speakers will be Liv Glaser, Georgia Violoti, and Sigurd Slåttebrekk. 

Liv Glaser has been recognized as being amongst the elite of Norwegian pianists. She studied in Oslo with Robert Riefling, at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique in Paris and the Moscow Music Conservatory. Later she was studying with Paul Badura-Skoda in Vienna, besides indepth studies of the fortepiano with Malcolm Bilson at Cornell University. Among her recordings are Mozart’s piano sonatas, both on modern grand and fortepiano, Clementi, Schubert, and Grieg’s Lyric Pieces. Glaser has been teaching at the Norwegian Academy of Music since 1973. She was awarded HM The King’s Medal of Merit 1965, the Lindeman Prize 2004 and the Grieg Prize 2014.  

PROGRAM

Friday, 2 September, Edvard Grieg Museum, Troldhaugen

11.00–12.30
Liv Glaser, professor, piano, Norwegian Academy of Music
Grieg goes Baroque - The Holberg Suite with an Eye on the Performance Practice of the Past

Saturday, 3 September, Gunnar Sævigs sal, Grieg Academy, University of Bergen

10.15–10.30
Arnulf Christian Mattes, professor and leader, Grieg Research Centre, University of Bergen
Introduction

10.30–11.15
Christoph Siems, PhD fellow, Martin-Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Jörg Holzmann, Hochschule der Künste, Bern
The Piano Roll as Soloist. Grieg's Piano Concerto and Early Recordings

11.15–12.00
Arnulf Christian Mattes, Grieg Research Centre, University of Bergen
Performance Poetics/Musical Poetry: Grieg Playing Grieg

12.00–12.45
Per Dahl, professor emerit., musicology, University of Stavanger
The Norwegian Sound Archive

12.45–13.30
Panel with Georgia Volioti, Sigurd Slåttebrekk, Per Dahl and Arnulf Mattes
Historical Recordings and Musical Heritage: Why Do We Need Sound Archives?

13.30–15.00 LUNCH BREAK

15.00–15.45
Christina Sofie Kobb, pianist, PhD, musicology, Norwegian Academy of Music
Edvard Grieg and the Viennese Piano Heritage – Quick Leaps and One-Handed Polyphony

15.45–16.30
Sigurd Slåttebrekk, professor, piano, Norwegian Academy of Music
Recreating Grieg – a Retrospect

16.30–17.15
Georgia Volioti, Lecturer in Music, University of Surrey
On and Off the Record: Reimagining Grieg’s Piano Ballade from Historical Recordings