Millom Rosor – Edvard Grieg Songs

A project of passion!

Recorded in Grieg’s villa, Troldhaugen, on Grieg’s own Steinway Model B from 1892

The songs of Edvard Grieg have always been among his most beloved compositions, for Grieg himself, and for performers and listeners. The 170 songs he wrote spring from deep personal inspiration, and they were always dedicated to or inspired by close personal relations or great poetry.

We wanted to record Edvard Grieg’s music in Grieg’s own villa and on his own lovely piano. In selecting which songs would work well together on this CD we followed intuition and mood. We were invited by the Edvard Grieg Museum to record the songs which make up his opus 48. The poems are taken from several authors, and the texts are all in German. Opus 26 with poems of Johan Paulsen, and opus 39, with different Norwegian poets represented, offer the complete spectrum from the joys of love to the deepest sorrow humans can experience—the loss of a child. The Steinway grand from the 1890s provides the intimacy of tone called for by the texts.

This recording was made during a few cold January days. The songs were assembled and arranged far from festivals and spring birches. While they were being recorded, the efforts to muffle the sounds of the winter storm and wooden house were gradually modified into an encounter with that which Grieg himself had discovered to be inspiring—a lovely house, the beauty of nature, and the essence of the moment that a song  can impart. Moreover, we were able to avail ourselves of the composer’s own instrument: a magnificent old Steinway grand with its characteristic timbre— dark, deep, and round, and at the same time bright and clear in the treble. A grand piano built for this intimate setting and concert experience.