Concerto for piano and orchestra in b minor

on fragments of an unfinished piano concerto by Edvard Grieg (1997)

This work was written in 1997 for the Third International Competition for Composers organised by the Oslo Grieg Society.

Edvard Grieg wrote his famous piano concerto in A minor in 1868, at the age of 25. Later he started working on a second piano concerto in B minor. This work was never finished and only the sketches reproduced on the following pages remain.

The object of the competition was to write a work for piano and orchestra including elements from these sketches, freely adapted. In my contribution, I nevertheless tried to respect the style and the harmonic and melodic idioms so typical of the great Norwegian master, as well as to make the widest use of the thematic material he left behind.

The Concerto in B minor is in one large movement in sonata form, where an adagio, a scherzo and a cadenza take the place of the customary development.

There are many links with the work of Grieg: the adagio in G major is reminiscent of the string writing in the Holberg Suite and the scherzo is inspired by the numerous pieces in which Grieg depicted the trolls, those legendary inhabitants of the Norwegian mountains. At the midst of this scherzo, a folk-like section features a mock springar (a Norwegian folkdance in ¾) which is reminiscent of the piano writing of the Slåtter op.72.

Lastly, there are also many links with the A minor Concerto itself, e.g. the same instrumentation, the opening timpani roll and the climactic recapitulation of the main theme at the end of the work.

Performances

The Concerto in B minor was first performed on the 3rd May 2003 at St James, Piccadilly, London by Laurent Beeckmans and the orchestra I Maestri conducted by Thomas Kemp.

Quite a coïncidence, this happened at the same date and almost at the same location than Grieg's performance in 1888 of his own piano concerto. This was his first appearance in England, exactly 115 years before! (enlarge the announcements on the right)

The second performance was at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels on the 7th November 2003 by Laurent Beeckmans and the Ensemble Orchestral de Bruxelles conducted by Jacques Vanherenthals.

Further performances took place in 2007 for the centenary year of Grieg's death, namely at the 10th edition of the Musikfestpiele Saar in Saarbrücken, Germany.

Listen on Youtube

Score

The 2 pianos version available at Geyser Music Edition

The fragments

The fragments Grieg left behind for his second piano concerto form three sets of bars apparently intended for different movements. These fragments are written on 2 or 4 staffs. The first one, only 4 bars short, states a theme in b minor that I will call the main theme:


(clic on the icon to hear the fragment from a MIDI file)

Secondly, 8 bars in 2/4 of a sprightly b major theme; I call it the secondary theme. At the end of this second fragment, there is an indication of an orchestral repetition in e major, i.e. a fourth higher:

The third fragment is more important: about 140 bars of a scherzo-like 6/8:

The first bars states a typical orchestral theme in b minor with the augmented fourth (E sharp); this theme is close to the famous Hall of the Mountain-King from Peer Gynt:

To pay a tribute to those surnatural beings that Grieg often depicted in his work, I will call it the "Troll theme".

The basses introduce a fourth theme, punctuated by the afterbeat chords of the "right hand" (bars G9-G16). Beginning as a chromatic scale, he twists his way around the chord notes of b minor. I will call it the "chromatic theme".

The piano enters by giving a variant of the previous 8 bars (bars G17-G24): the chromatic theme appears in the higher register with a b minor accompaniment in the left hand.

At G25 begins a harmonic progression on the following chords: E9, Am7, D9, Gm7 and C9, broken off by the horn's F sharp at bar G43.

This characteristic use of the augmented fourth will appear further again. Bars G45-G48 echo in pp the 4 previous ones.

Bars G49-G72 forms the exact repetition of the 24 previous bars, but a fifth higher.

The harmonic progression is thus: B9, Em7, A9, Dm7 and G9 broken off by the horn's C sharp (bars G67-G71); this being extended until G76.

At G78, there is a question-marked E flat (perhaps a transcript mistake?). I think it must be rather a E sharp, that will make this bar closer to the opening troll theme.

The bars G79 to G85 look rather as a rough draft, as do the next 8 bars, a b minor pedal written on a single staff (G86-G93).

At G94, the piano gives a new statement of the troll theme in a texture of alternated octaves. The structure is slightly different from the beginning of the fragment: in the fourth bar, the theme rests on a stressed doted minim.

These four bars are repeated a fourth higher (e minor at bar G98) and further an octave higher (bar G102), but the fragment is broken off after the first bar.

All following bar numbers are question-marked; the remaining music consists mainly of a long progression on a F sharp pedal.

Bars G111 to G114 state another variant of the troll theme, ponctuated by a chromatic progression from the woodwinds.

These four "static" bars are answered by a chord progression; by enharmonic change, those chords are G7 - C#7 and C7 - F#7, another occurence of the augmented fourth! These 8 bars are repeated with the indication "the piano an octave lower".

At G119 a rythmic progression begins: the 8 previous bars are summed up to 4 (2 bars for the variant of the troll theme, and 2 for the "tritone" answer), whilst the piano is going down towards its lowest register.

The 4 next bars (G123 to G126) are similar to the previous ones. At G127, the progression goes on on two bars, and finaly one, as the piano climbs back to the high. This ascension is broken off ff. (I think this last bar was intended to be repeated at least three times; this seems to me the logical continuation of the bars before, and it would fill the three following empty bars on the score.)

Lastly, the piano puts an end to this long F# pedal by a last stroke of alternated octaves (bars G135 to G138). Perhaps was this to introduce a ff return of the troll theme by the whole orchestra? Unfortunately, this is the place where the fragments end.