Search - London Symphony Orchestra, Edvard Grieg, George Weldon :: Peer Gynt Suites 1 & 2

Edvard Grieg once wrote of his work: "Artists like Bach and Beethoven erected churches and temples on the heights. I wanted, as Ibsen expresses it in one of his last dramas, to build dwellings for men in which they might feel at home and happy. In other words, I have utilized the folk-music of my land." Peer Gynt was a real person who lived in Gudbrandsdal about 1800. Some of his exploits are related in Asbj?rnsen's Norwegian Fairy Tales, but most of the story as we know it is of Ibsen's invention. It was written as a poem and a fantasy, and Ibsen complained that far more was read into it than he had ever intended.