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Mme. Grieg made her last public appearance in London in 1898. After that she sang only for her husband and his friends. Grieg's sixtieth birthday, June 15, 1903, was celebrated in the cities of Scandanavia, throughout Europe and also in America: thus he lived to see the recognition of his unique genius in many parts of the world. Grieg was constantly using up his strength by too much exertion.
When it is recalled that Grieg was a pianist of exceptional merit, the large place occupied by pianoforte pieces twenty-eight of the seventy-three opus numbers it is easily understood. Grieg's piano pieces are brief, but they are veritable gems. The Jumbo idea in music still lingers with minor professionals.
I saw, too, a performance by school children in Moscow which included some quite wonderful Eurythmic dancing, in particular an interpretation of Grieg's Tanz in der Halle des Bergkönigs by the Dalcroze method, but with a colour and warmth which were Russian, and in odd contrast to the mathematical precision associated with most Dalcroze performances.
Again he came across the unfamiliar, the strange, the obviously distinguished Grieg's "Arabian Dance"; "Es war ein Traum" by Lassen; "Elegie" by Massenet; "Otidi" by Davydoff; "Nymphs and Shepherds" by Purcell things whose very titles smacked of color and beauty. Gluck, Sgambati, Rossini, Tschaikowsky the Italian Scarlatti Eugene marvelled at what he did not know about music.
Mozart, Grieg, Chopin, Raff, Beethoven. Y'u ce'tainly have the music here; I wonder if y'u have the musician." He looked her over with a bold, unscrupulous gaze. "It's an old trick to have classical music on the rack and ragtime in your soul. Can y'u play these?" "You will have to be the judge of that," she said. He selected two of Grieg's songs and invited her to the piano.
They were the oddest creatures in the Laundromat, dancing the sangfroid to a cassette recording of Evard Grieg's Peer Gynt with bread and cream cheese gushing in their mouths as they waited for their laundry to dry. One day they went downtown to pay utility bills and afterwards they walked around the campus of Cornell University.
No one could be greater than Grieg was great when he wrote that song. The whole last act of The Twilight of the Gods is not greater than a little song of Grieg's. 'I see, I murmured humbly. 'The Twilight of the Gods that is Wagner, isn't it? 'Yes. Don't you know your Wagner? 'No. 'You don't know Tristan? He jumped up, excited. 'How could I know it? I expostulated.
One of these is Moritz Moszkowski, probably the most popular of modern pianoforte composers of high-class music. Grieg, when he finally consented to make the voyage to America, placed his price at two thousand five hundred dollars for every concert a sum which any manager would regard prohibitive, except in the case of one world-famous pianist. Grieg's intent was obvious.
Then came Schumann's Traumerei on the strings, Handel's Largo, Grieg's Papillon, and a ballade by Chaminade. Then again sang the prima-donna; old folksy songs, sketches from the operas grand and light, Faust, The Barber of Seville, La Fille de Madame Angot. In all his days Warburton had never heard such music. Doubtless he had even better; only at this period he was in love.
His music does contain such peculiarities; but it is necessary to distinguish between what is Norwegian and what is Griegian. Grieg's little pieces and songs are big with genius.
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