I want to buy this but I see quite a few different editions, which is the best one?

My teacher recommended to me the Dover edition for all of the Grieg Lyric pieces, not to sure what the others are like

The Dover book of the Lyric Pieces are reprints from all the Edition Peters, which published most of Griegs piano music during his lifetime. Both Peters and Grieg did well from each other, and these are the originals. It's only around a tenner and you get all 66 lyric pieces, which vary considerably in style, but are all beautifully crafted pieces. I'd say the Dover Edition is the best bet, but each book of the Lyric pieces is available seperately, and I'm quite sure Wedding Day is available as a single piece from EP.

I see that the piece I mentioned is in the complete set of Lyric Pieces, so is it just worth getting the whole collection of 66?

I'd think so, it works out at just over 22 pence a piece

Lyric Pieces

I was just looking at that very book!

Nice book isn't it I love books with colourful covers

Is it one of those where the binding is stupid and won't stay put on the piano?

No no no! It stays on my piano fine....i'll just go check *dashes off to piano, puts music on stand, plays Butterfly, comes back to laptop*....yep it stays on fine

That's great then, I might order it tomorrow!

Well if it does fall of your piano don't come after me haha!

With these books you should open them in the middle and bend them back a bit, and hold it like that for a while, do it every now and then, and it should be ok. There's so many gems in this collection, my favourites are Woodland Peace, Erotikon, Butterfly, Brooklet, At thy feet, Phantom, definitely recommend getting the complete set. And if anyones not got Emil Gilels recording on DG, i would strongly recommend that too, he really brings out the colours and intimacy of these pieces, just wish he'd recorded all of them.

It's one of those books you need to bend back a lot? I bet it falls off the piano...

I love Troldhaugen....

It's not..well my copy isn't

And dont forget the Nocturne that's set for Grade 8

Troublesome books: I read a tip recently which seems to work. Starting alternately from the front and back of the book, gently flatten every tenth page until you get to the middle. Less destructive than bashing the spine of your expensive Urtexts with a hammer!

Wedding Day at T. is also available free on sheetmusicarchive.net if you want to get your paws on it straight away.

Thank-you. I'll order the book shortly and get that free copy just to have a play through whilst waiting for the book.

I've got a number of things through sheetmusicarchive.net and other freebie internet sites. If you print them out on decent enough paper you can make excellent anthologies using plastic display books. (the type of thing you can get cheaply from tesco).

I would recommend it as a way of obtaining music for repertoire building for any musician who is watching the pennies.

Dover score do behave well on pianos, and when you can afford and justify buying the whole lot are a really worthwhile investment. However there is nothing wrong with building collections of public domain music off free downloads. It is legal and gives the cash-strapped musician access to a lot of really good music and a wider repertoire withou breaking the bank.

Ohmigod, you lucky thing being able to learn this. It is my absolute favourite, but sadly well beyond my abilities. The only time I'll get to play Wedding Day will be on heavenly harps in the Next World!

I have no idea if it is within my capabilities..I have just ordered it. I heard it on Classic FM and loved it, so we will soon see!

I was asked to play this at a wedding when I was in my mid-teens. On the organ, I might add, using a piano copy. Great fun and the choir were requesting it for weeks after - it was the hit of the year.

Ooh I must try that , with a bit of pedalling added too.

oops forgot that one, though I do play it and for some time had trouble keeping the left hand rythm steady while executing the r.h trill, when i did get it the trill came out too loud...have to keep working on it ! It's a fab piece, and really takes me back many years to that Gilels record. For some reason I never tried learning Troldhaugen, there are certainly some difficult parts, but now with all you folks raving about it, I'll have to have a go too! Another piece is on the cards is ''the Bridal Procession goes by'' from Griegs Pictures of Everyday Life Op 19, guess i got my work cut out !

This piece holds a special place in my piano learning heart. A year or so ago I was determined to finally learn how to memorise and this was my do-or-die piece! I thought I never could and it was such a boost to my confidence to manage to play it from beginning to end without the score. Now, I claim no great technical mastery over it and the couple of bits that really caused me grief probably eventually sounded better in my imagination than in reality … but it was great fun to learn, full of character and the music evoked many very detailed visual scenarios. I think I had the beginnings of a movie screenplay by the end!

Have fun!

Arrived today...hard .

This is so exactly my own experience, dorfmouse, it is uncanny. It was something my grandmother played all her life and I loved it then but never really got to grips with it while I was having lessons. Finally this year I thought, come on, get it learnt - an dsoon realised it's one of those you can't actually play until you memorise it (well, that's my opinion anyway) so I had to break with my "I can't memorise - wrong shaped brain" excuses that have served me well all my life. Again like you, I have by no mens mastered it but people have at least stopped running from the room with hands over their ears when I start playing.

For anyone thinking of learning it it's about DipABRSM standard (at least that's where the ISM music journal put it when they reviewed Grieg music through the grades earlier this year).

Well done!
It's very liberating to know you can actually memorise and frees you up for trying pieces you think you have no hope of attempting. I get really cross when people say their teacher insists they watch the music all the time; I ended up not being able to take my eyes off the score for a couple of seconds . I'm just advocating that people should be encouraged to do both and that the likes of you and me can be taught how to memorise too for when it's desirable.

For sure there are times when you have to memorise, faster pieces generally, i have'nt learned Troldhaugen yet, but the Butterfly from Lyric pieces is one piece where I have to memorise those right hand parts.

Cheers, dorfmouse. The watching the score thing is good for sight reading - I was rigorously trained to do that and I was always proud of my sight reading. But being unable to play anything for friends because "all my music is at home" has just started to sound too pathetic even to me. And having taken mournful possession of my first pair of glasses this week, I realise memorising may become a necessity even to play my 'old' music in the future - not just for the troglodyte's wedding....sorry was that not one of your mental images for this piece?!

Please let us know how you get on with this beautiful piece. I'm very jealous!

...not just for the troglodyte's wedding....sorry was that not one of your mental images for this piece?!"

It wasn't Hils, but thinking of the opening bars it easily could be .... ! Now I'll have to relearn it with a completely different screenplay ....

What is the grade standard of "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen"? I would like to have a go but I am going to have a Grade 6 exam in November. I would like to know if that is suitable for me.

You really need to look at it (download it or borrow a copy) and decide for yourself!
Portions of it are not at all difficult eg the first 2 pages and the slow sections. But it would be really frustrating to start off happily and then hit a stone wall later in the piece. You can sightread through and decide what’s most difficult for you and spend a bit of time just on those bars getting an idea how long it’ll take you to learn those bits and if it’s worth the struggle! For example, bar 32 onwards looks absolutely horrendous but there is pattern and repetition. Look at bars 50, 52 and similar … there you have to play groups of 5 and 6 semiquaver arpeggios in the left hand against groups of 2 quavers in the right, over a couple of octaves, at speed and fortissimo … !!
If you're not daunted I think it's a great piece for developing techniques and learning strategies because it's so full of variety. And it must be performed dramatically with at least the illusion of confidence, even if you're quaking inside!

I was about Gr.6 almost 7 standard when I began... It is hard, but theres ALOT of repitition! And not that bad

What's the piece called in German? Because I have the Emil Gilels cd, but all the names are in german.

Hochzeitstag auf Troldhaugen.

Thanks Now I recognise it.

[quote name='dorfmouse' date='Aug 9 2007, 02:48 AM' post='566677']
[quote name='sarah123' post='566667' date='Aug 8 2007, 06:27 PM']
What's the piece called in German? Because I have the Emil Gilels cd, but all the names are in german.
[/quote]

How is the Emil Gilels CD? I would like to buy one Lyric Pieces CD but there are many. I don't know which one I should buy. Gilels? Andsnes? Richter?

[quote name='Duan Yue' date='Aug 9 2007, 10:41 AM' post='566956']
[quote name='dorfmouse' date='Aug 9 2007, 02:48 AM' post='566677']
[quote name='sarah123' post='566667' date='Aug 8 2007, 06:27 PM']
What's the piece called in German? Because I have the Emil Gilels cd, but all the names are in german.
[/quote]

How is the Emil Gilels CD? I would like to buy one Lyric Pieces CD but there are many. I don't know which one I should buy. Gilels? Andsnes? Richter?
[/quote]

The Gilels is charming.

I've started learning this too. I would say its between Grade 7/8, and suits people with bigger rather than smaller hands. Of course you could submit it succesfully at diploma level as to do it real justice being you would need to be about dipabrsm standard at least.

Fantastic piece though allows you to demonstrate you full ability at the piano.

Andsnes, definitely . Played on Grieg's piano in Grieg's drawing room in his house at Troldhaugen - how much more authentic can one get . Very well played - Andsnes has just the right mix of sensitivity and cheekiness that suits the Lyric Pieces very well .

I have both the Gilels and Andsnes cds. Both very good. The only way i can compare them really is that the Andsnes one has four more pieces than the Gilels (but they probably come with full editions too) and the Andsnes one has March of the Dwarves (which is probably my favourite of all the pieces) and the Gilels doesn't.

Talking of March of the Dwarves, has anyone played it, because i'm thinking of starting to learn it, but it looks quite tricky.

The Andsnes is indeed pretty fab

I will also endorse Andsnes. He has recorded them on Griegs own Model B Steinway of 1882.
(Oops sorry YAP has already pointed this out!)
The reference is EMI 7243 5 57296 2

I've heard both of these recordings and they both have a lot to recommend them to an audience. Gilels is at his best during these pieces and as I said they are charming, but I also like the andnes, very sensitive.

Most available only contain selections and are not complete. The Gilels is a legendary recording, it is one of my all time favourites, but I did'nt know that he also recorded Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, it's not on the the DG vinyl or CD. Have'nt got Andnes EMI Lyric Pieces, but I do have an older one of his which used to be on the HMV label, and it's excellent. Pletnevs on DG is also very good, he plays Troldhaugen more slowly than I 've so far heard, but it really works well. However, for the complete Lyric pieces i would highly recommend Nokleberg on Naxos , he has recorded 14 CD' s of Griegs complete piano music for this label, and the three seperate discs which combined feature all 66 Lyric pieces cost only a fiver each. Beautifully plated too. One which I would definitely steer clear of is Daniel Adni on EMI, which is the most rushed and unexpressive playing of this music.

Just beginning to work through this and although most of it is coming on well, the 5 against 2 in the reprise is eluding me at the moment. I don't have too much trouble with 3 against 4 generally (working through slowly and gradually build up the speed). I presume it is the same principle, but any tips would be welcome. I'm tempted to the view that when its up to speed, people might not notice if it's not quite perfect?

Mole

Wow, this is an old thread... from August 2007!

I'm too lazy to start my own thread

Nowt wrong with reviving an old thread! They almost always have useful information somewhere and many of the new Mites will not have found them. It is still a jolly good piece!