Score analysis Articles

During the course of his life, Grieg had several unproductive periods due to a chronic illness.
The year 1880 marked the end of one of such periods, and the inspiration came from poet Aasmund Olafsson Vinje, a proud romantic Norwegian nationalist.

Grieg, whose sentiments perfectly aligned with Vinje’s, chose 12 poems to set to music as a song cycle. From those 12, Grieg transcribed two of them for string orchestra: Hjertesår (The Wounded Heart), and Våren (The Last Spring).

The Mass K257 falls in the stream of the so-called Credo-Masses. The name is derived from the long setting of the Credo, a practice adopted on many occasions, including, among others, Mozart’s own Kleine Credo Messe K192 and, later on, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.

The triumphant Finale of Bruckner 8th – the last symphony that the composer completed – is a marvel of compositional structure and clarity of process.

Haydn’s symphony 44 is known as Trauer (Mourning). An apocryphal story relates that Haydn asked for the slow movement of this symphony to be played at his funeral.