Sommervise, Op. 45 no. 3

£8.00

Sommervise is the third movement from a set of five ‘Fantasistykker’ originally written for piano and published in 1897. The work opens with a semplice folk tune which develops with light pianistic figures and singing melodies reminiscent of a calm summer day.

Description

Agathe Backer Grøndahl (1847–1907) was a Norwegian pianist, composer and teacher. A close friend and colleague of Edvard Grieg, the two musicians shared a deep mutual respect, with Grieg conducting her 1868 debut performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.5. This was the beginning of her highly successful journey as a touring concert pianist, with George Bernard Shaw describing her as one of the greatest piano virtuosos of the 19th century.

Though her performance career was curtailed by progressive hearing loss, Backer Grøndahl continued to compose and teach, with her ‘Scherzo’ for orchestra being the first work written by a woman to be publicly performed in Norway.  Remarkably, most of her 400 works were published during her lifetime, a rare feat for a woman of her time.

Sommervise is the third movement from a set of five ‘Fantasistykker’ originally written for piano and published in 1897. The work opens with a semplice folk tune which develops with light pianistic figures and singing melodies reminiscent of a calm summer day.

Additional information

Composer

Instrumentation

Duration

3'

Difficulty

Arranged by

ISMN

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