Eight pieces from the Lyric Suites

Edvard Grieg

Arranged by Tony Turrill

Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn

If you would like to hear some computer generated  excerpts from each movement in turn,  click on the quaver sign. It may take a few seconds to load your windows media player

I, like I suspect many others, was first attracted to the music of Grieg by his Piano Concerto, the Peer Gynt Suite and his orchestral settings of some of the Lyric Suites. When looking to see which of his works might be suitable candidates to arrange for wind, I was taken aback by the sheer size of his vast opus. As a non-pianist, I had not realised that the Lyric Suites stretched to 10 volumes, each containing many individual pieces.  Selecting the appropriate four or five became a problem, which I  eventually solved by choosing eight.  It was easy to pick the first and last movements using the same with which  Grieg himself opens and closes  the series.  I like to imagine Arietta as the young girl who was his first love and that Remembrances represents him looking back after a lifetime of happiness elsewhere, occasionally a little wistfully but largely with affection, at what might have been. I have made no attempt to verify whether this is true for fear that I might  be disillusioned.   Selecting six from the remaining pieces in the ten books was much harder.  Eventually I decided to avoid the very well known March of the Trolls, Tronheim Wedding etc and select from my own favourites those containing passages that might sit well on each of the five instruments and which would each be in a different mood.  This set is therefore:-                                                       

1. Arietta (Book 1)

2. Grandmother’s Minuet  (Book 5)

3. Notturno  (Book 5)

4. Puck  (Book 10)

5. Vanished Days (Book

6. Scherzo (Book 5)

7. Evening in the Mountains  (Book 9)

8. Remembrances (Book 10)

Some changes to the accompaniments have been made to allow the change from piano to wind but always  with Grieg’s harmonies and hopefully following his intentions.  Keys have been altered where necessary  to bring pieces within the range of the various instruments of the quintet.

return to top