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Grieg in Performance - International Research Seminar 2022

The International Edvard Grieg Society, the Grieg Research Centre at the University of Bergen, and Grieg Museum Troldhaugen invite to an international research seminar on Grieg in light of historical performance traditions and their relevance for present day interpretive practices. The seminar will take place 2 September at Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen and 3 September at the Grieg Academy.

	Drawing [Edvard Grieg og Wilma Neruda-Hallé : Konsert i København, 1900 01.09]
Photo:
Griegsamlingen, Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek

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This seminar’s aim is to shed new light on the performance traditions related to Edvard Grieg in the context of 19th century historical performance-studies, ‘historical informed performance (HIP) and the analysis of historical recordings. The research field on 19th century historical performance practice has increased immensely during the recent decades. However, there still exist few studies examining Grieg from the perspective of performance practice, despite of his obvious significance as composer-performer and even one of the pioneers of early recording. This seminar’s goal is hence to increase our knowledge and understanding of interpretive practices related to Grieg, and how they developed, transmitted, diversified during the 20thcentury. Accordingly, Grieg’s own historical recordings and those with performers closely related to him performing his works deserve special attention and will be a main theme of the seminar. Topics related to this are:

  • Issues and gains in reconstructing Grieg’s performance style with focus on his chamber music for strings (violin sonatas and cello sonata) and his works for piano solo.
  • Issues of analyzing Grieg’s performance style as it is documented in various historical sources
  • The value of historical recordings for understanding Grieg’s compositional poetics ‘beyond the score’   
  • Grieg’s performance style in the context of the influences, schools, and traditions of 19th century pianism
  • History of effect of Grieg as a performer, the formation of national traditions, and the history of stylistic developments

The seminar will be hold at Troldhaugen and the Grieg academy, with period instruments available for active participants. Among the invited speakers will be Liv Glaser and Georgia Violoti (other speakers TBA):

Liv Glaser has been recognized as being amongst the elite of Norwegian pianists. She studied in Oslo with Robert Riefling, at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique in Paris and the Moscow Music Conservatory. Later she was studying with Paul Badura-Skoda in Vienna, besides indepth studies of the fortepiano with Malcolm Bilson at Cornell University. Among her recordings are Mozart’s piano sonatas, both on modern grand and fortepiano, Clementi, Schubert, and Grieg’s Lyric Pieces. Glaser has been teaching at the Norwegian Academy of Music since 1973. She was awarded HM The King’s Medal of Merit 1965, the Lindeman Prize 2004 and the Grieg Prize 2014.

Georgia Violoti is a lecturer in the Department of Music and Media at the University of Surrey and her research areas embrace musical performance studies, empirical musicology, music psychology, music education, historical and cultural musicology. She has published on Grieg’s historical performances in international journals and is currently co-editing the book ‘Recorded Music in Creative Practices: Mediation, Performance, Pedagogy’ for the Routledge SEMPRE series.  

There will be a limited number of individual paper presentations. Please send your abstract (ca. 300 words with short biography) by 1 July 2022 to: arnulf.mattes@uib.no.

Grieg international piano competition: The participants are invited to follow the competition program and attend the concerts from 26 August to 3 September 2022: www.griegcompetition.com