Edvard Grieg

Edvard Grieg was a Norwegian composer born in Bergen in 1843. He studied composition with Niels Gade in Copenhagen and drew heavily from Norwegian folk music traditions he heard growing up. His Piano Concerto in A minor from 1868 became one of his most recognized works.

In 1874, Grieg wrote incidental music for Henrik Ibsen's play "Peer Gynt." That suite produced some of his most enduring pieces, including "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and "Solveig's Song." The former in particular became widely familiar for its dramatic, building tension.

Some critics at the time found his music too nationalistic or harmonically unconventional, but Grieg kept writing in a style that felt distinctly Norwegian. He didn't compose a huge volume of work compared to some of his contemporaries, but pieces like the Peer Gynt excerpts and his piano concerto have stayed in the repertoire.