Lyric Pieces II (2023) 60′

for String Quartet, Piano, Metronomes, Grammophone Player and Electronic.

Commissioned by KODE – Arts Museums of Bergen.

First performance November 24 2023 by Bergen String Quartet and Ellena Armelius (piano).

In 2019, I composed the orchestral work Lyric Pieces for the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. However, it was more a recomposition than an original composition—something between an arrangement and a composition—where I blended Edvard Grieg’s material with my own.

For Lyric Pieces II, I returned to the same concept and revisited some of the same Lyric Pieces. While the orchestral pieces from 2019 were careful recompositions with Grieg’s material just beneath the surface, this time I took a more radical approach.

I used some of Grieg’s own recordings from 1903 and 1906, where the noise from the gramophone often almost obscures the piano’s sound. Additionally, I included my own field recordings from everyday life, further blending past and present.

  1. Prologue – Arietta
    The metronome ticks relentlessly, as Grieg’s first lyric piece, Arietta, can barely be discerned through light string tones and gramophone noise.
  2. To Spring
    Grieg himself performs in a recording from 1903. I have extended the final captivating chord sequence to an absurd level.
  3. Berceuse (Book II, Op. 38, No. 1)
    Original version for solo piano.
  4. Berceuse II
    In a recording from June 2013, my daughter Agnes (2 years old) sings a song she made up on the spot. The quartet accompanies with a waltz version of Grieg’s Lullaby.
  5. Bell Ringing (Book V, Op. 54, No. 6)
    Original version for solo piano.
  6. Homesickness/Bell Ringing
    Grieg’s Homesickness (Book VI, Op. 57, No. 6) is combined with a recording from Torshovparken in Oslo, also from 2013. Torshov Church was our nearest neighbor.
  7. Butterfly
    The static ticking metronomes are confronted with Grieg’s highly flexible playing style. Grieg performs himself in a 1906 recording.
  8. Notturno (Book V, Op. 54, No. 4)
    Original version for solo piano.
  9. Notturno II
    Here I quote from my Piano Trio (2017), but I have added counter-melodies based on the accompaniment figure from Grieg’s Notturno.
  10. Norwegian March
    Edvard Grieg performs in a recording from 1903.
  11. Norwegian March II
    I have transformed Grieg’s material into a kind of airy and playful minimalism, based on the descending movements from Grieg’s original.
  12. Summer’ Eve
    Grieg’s original (Book X, Op. 71, No. 2) is combined with a recording from a summer evening in June at Fløenbakken, where I live. The strings play a chorale, and an old acquaintance makes a visit.
  13. Piano Concerto (2nd movement)
    A 1933 recording of Wilhelm Backhaus and the New York Symphony Orchestra (conducted by John Barbarolli) performing the second movement of Grieg’s Piano Concerto is played on a gramophone. The quartet accompanies, but the structures collapse as the movement reaches its climax.
  14. Epilogue – Remembrances
    Through a forest of metronome sounds (a nod to György Ligeti’s metronome work “Poème Symphonique” from 1962), the string chorale from Summer Evening returns. Grieg’s 1903 recording of Remembrances, his last lyrical piece, is barely audible before it fades away again.