Norwegian Suite, A

This work came about after a trip up and down the Norwegian coast in 2018. During the trip we were treated to about a dozen concerts of Norwegian music performed by excellent Norwegian artists in unusual venues. This rekindled my interest in the music of Edvard Grieg, and I searched out scores and recordings of over a hundred of his Lyric Pieces, art songs, piano pieces and folksong settings. I settled on four of these to be adapted and arranged into this short suite of Grieg’s miniatures. Since I now have so much material at my disposal, there may be another stand-alone piece coming, using Norwegian folk music. The pieces presented here are not well-known, but they should be. They all evoke aspects of the Norwegian culture and personality. They are all very expressive pieces. I have kept the technical demands subservient to creating an opportunity for expressive playing. The pieces go together nicely as a suite, but each can stand alone or in combination with one of the others, giving the conductor freedom to present them in varied ways.