Episode 3: Peer Gynt by Edvard Grieg

How Norway's most famous composer transformed Norway's most famous playwright's scintillating thriller - with great reluctance, but much success!
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MUSIC CREDITS:
Composer: Edvard Grieg
Work: Peer Gynt, Op.23
Performer: London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Per Dreier
Year: 1978
Label: Unicorn
Catalogue No: UKC361/2
With thanks to Emilia Strachevskaia.

[@christopherlynn755]

I love that Grieg consciously avoided "orientalizing" his music to accompany the parts of the story in North Africa. He was true to himself, his style, and was just plain authentic.

[@vitorafmonteiro]

In case any of you is wondering, no, Grieg's music does not sound like codfish. Don't be silly, if it did Portugal would have adopted it as a staple by now.

[@GlacierCodfish]

As a codfish enthusiast from Norway, I very much apreciated this. Very 🐟of you to make this👏

[@hayleysteindorf670]

Anitra’s choices for dancing made me burst out laughing, and was that goblin hugging himself!?! Edit: CODFISH! CODFISH! CODFISH! Another edit: I love how snazzy Peer looks in that suit and tie

[@jiafeiskinnyproducts]

This needs more views. WAY more views. I'd suggest maybe to do a Debussy piece like Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun or La Mer? Anyway, amazing video!

[@ClassicsExplained]

Thank you for your kind feedback and suggestions. We'll get there one day!

[@davisnorton4388]

Cool. They just uploaded the video from this suggestion. Amazing work!

[@eggizgud]

@@davisnorton4388 Yeah, hilarious. All this while, I've loved the music without the humour.

[@lexerwilliams8880]

This is always been by favorite musician. Grieg is I think one of the best.

[@janetdw]

This was fantastic. It was suggested by my favorite a cappella group who just is getting ready to release a video on the Hall of the Mountain King. I recognize the music but could not for the life of me figure out why the heck they were all dressed as goblins or trolls. I just could not figure out the story and they are famous for their storytelling. This made everything so much clearer. I’m going to go back and watch them all because I learned so much and it was so vastly entertaining. Thank you for this from someone who likes music but knows nothing about it and certainly doesn’t know anything about the classics even though I like listening to them. Who knew they were such storytellers?

[@forbiddenfursona]

can't stop simping grieg in classics explained's art style

[@masterofmusic321]

Another excellent video! Keep up all the great work guys!

[@ClassicsExplained]

masterofmusic321 Thank you so much for your support!

[@ladgf5491]

Envi, 😂

[@redbrian3655]

I really laughed at Anitra's inspiration in her choice of dances! I have known this music all my life and never knew Ibsen's story (I like the music minus the story better!). Super vid! CODFISH!!!!

[@ClassicsExplained]

Thanks!

[@GVZGQosqoruna]

That twerking !! *o*

[@Band_Kid_4_Life]

I love how you depicted him as some rebellious teenager XD

[@MarkFilipAnthony]

In many ways Peer Gynt is. The story starts off with him basically being one, or a rebellious young adult. He used to be a rich boy, but after the loss of his dad the family also lost all their money. Peer still dreams of being upperclass, but is forced to live like a poor person. That might be a factor on why he acts the way he does. He was always told he was supposed to be rich and famous, and now he believes in that illusion regardless of his reality

[@2BiTeddy]

This was so entertaining! And I finally got the story! What a ride.

[@chip715715]

I remember when I first played in my youth orchestra!!

[@kittymervine6115]

I am learning so much... even at my age! thank you!

[@ClassicsExplained]

Thank you!

[@qawi272]

Edvard Grieg looks so cute in this .

[@eggizgud]

Especially when shouting, "Codfish!"

[@forbiddenfursona]

eboy grieg hbgvfcdxsz

[@LuckyLiegeLady246]

Right after I watched this I got an ad that used the morning music theme!

[@lucasildefonso6975]

Excellent. Another great video, congratulations guys!

[@ClassicsExplained]

Thank you!

[@asherperkinsmusic2767]

This was excellent! Where did yall go?? We need more!

[@DiPalmaBros]

Awesome video! Loving the polished content you’ve been putting out. You should totally do a video on The Rite of spring , it’s got an awesome story to it

[@ClassicsExplained]

Thank you so much! Yes, we love Stravinsky and we're planning to do a video on the Rite very soon!

[@magnusbruce4051]

That was great. Just stumbled upon this channel and will have to watch more!

[@ClassicsExplained]

thanks so much :)

[@alexroselle]

Ibsen: I need some catchy music for my play, or else they'll say I'm an Enemy of the People

[@frankupton5821]

There was a Yorkshireman who called his dog 'Grieg'. 'Appen, when it was in the living room, it used to peer gynt suite.

[@fabiannikko1495]

1:53 This... this is so cursed lmao Nice vid XD

[@ameliawarfield5637]

Classic!

[@Monothefox]

Let's not forget the logical evolution of Anitra's Dance into Anitra's Boogie.

[@QUEfrang]

4:34 Back then, nobody heard pop music before.

[@busadrian2795]

More composers please

[@johnmulhall5625]

Waiting for some Sibelius action, maybe the story behind the violin concerto? Love the channel so much

[@Iamaspecial]

*C O D F I S H*

[@kowwwex]

Great music!

[@audicoes]

Some day The Nutcracker, please!

[@adyfigueroa87]

Yes!! :D

[@coffeesboba]

We watched this in school 🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🔥

[@alexvlk]

Wonderful!

[@ClassicsExplained]

thanks so much!

[@kittymervine6115]

look at the audience bit in the beginning, two were enjoying themselves....

[@BerntEven]

This was really good

[@forbiddenfursona]

e-boy grieg e-boy grieg 😩😩😩

[@ferretyluv]

You forgot Solveig’s Song in the suite!

[@jarekwrzosek2048]

Drinking game: Take a sip when Grieg slaps someone with a codfish. Take a full shot when the codfish is raining down en masse, or someone is standing on top of a pile of codfish. XD

[@lemachinelearned2240]

These are amazing

[@TristanMA]

Both Bizet's L'Arlésienne and Grieg's Peer Gynt were turned into suites to gain their fame.

[@TristanMA]

I still can't stop thinking about the Disney Little Einsteins franchise when I hear Grieg's Peer Gynt. It appeared in the Episodes: I Love to Conduct, Dragon Kite, A Little Einsteins Halloween, The Good Knight and the Bad Knight, and The Secret Mystery Prize.

[@radogoji7031]

I loved that show!! Big missed opportunity to use music from other composers though, like Night on a Bald Mountain, The Planets, Rite of Spring, you get the idea!

[@caterscarrots3407]

@@radogoji7031 Agreed, would have been nice if they did more than just 2 seasons. Oh well, the show is great.

[@knightofarkronia8652]

Oh, I was hoping that you’d talk about the Boyg.

[@downbntout]

I like it 👍

[@ClassicsExplained]

Thank you!

[@willardwalrusboggs4821]

Excerpt from the Norwegian Dance (Zebra) Hall of the Mountain King (Tiger)

[@stevesherman1743]

Wow, I didn’t know that writer of Peer Gynt was on Laugh-In ! 😅 Henrik Ibsen Henry Gibson

[@fridafeline]

Haha this is great!!

[@TristanMA]

I woul like a discussion on Sibelius' Tapiola.

[@Malik-Ibi]

Great video, thanks. I read the original score has 26 movements. Any suggestion to a video with the original score? Please.

[@amyvillanueva3442]

Is that Hardanger fiddle I hear in the beginning?

[@andreafilidei3071]

I REALLY LOVE U😍

[@ClassicsExplained]

Thank you! We love you too!

[@nooneinparticular5256]

Think you could go over Prince Igor?

[@ClassicsExplained]

Yes! adding to the list :)

[@pr9039]

Yo, this makes me miss Flash Animation so much.

[@aprilrusso9002]

Please do william tell overture

[@denis-andreibai7793]

I thought that "Anitra's Dance" was about a little girl playing alone, maybe I thought so because I first listened to the piano version which sounds a bit different to me.

[@natachalagos5559]

Por favor con traducción en español, gracias

[@denis-andreibai7793]

@@natachalagos5559 I can not I don't speak spanish

[@Relikvien]

What is the name of that first piece of folkmusic there?🇧🇻

[@ClassicsExplained]

It's a lesser-known part of the piece called "Springar" - a spring dance that comes at the end of Act 1 :)

[@willardwalrusboggs4821]

Morning Mood (Sunbittern) Anitra's Dance (Fox)

[@tranaproductions]

Dette er jo en veldig bra kanal da! Skal garantert følge!

[@ClassicsExplained]

Tusen takk. Beklager den norske aksenten!

[@edvardgreig9468]

Codfish!

[@ArashKebab]

Why is baby yoda riding a cello

[@chazzwozzio]

Why not?

[@cameronbrown9634]

would it be possible to do a kid-friendly series of these videos? Just that, I'm a teacher and think these videos would be a great resource but often the themes are too adult (alcohol, hinting at sex, misogyny etc)

[@ClassicsExplained]

Our latest episodes are a little more kid-friendly - How old are your students? We're working on some quizzes to accompany the episodes if that would be of interest.

[@cameronbrown9634]

@@ClassicsExplained Thanks for the reply. They're all ages really. From pre-school all the way up to 15

[@MarkFilipAnthony]

An issue with peer gynt, if u want to tell to children, is that the story is surrounded around how the character is abusing all those adult things, sex, alcohol, abuse etc etc.

[@hauthot287]

Keep Grieg emo

[@tristan1042]

codfish....

[@mequierenvolverloco]

Could you translate it into Spanish? I would like to know what is being said. I'm working on an adaptation of Peer Gynt. Thank you very much. Can you TRANSLATE GOOGLE. ESPAÑOL CASTELLANO: ¿Podrías traducirlo al Castellano? Me gustaría entender lo que se dice. Estoy trabajando en una adaptación de Peer Gynt. Muchas gracias. Podrías usar el TRADUCTOR DE GOOGLE PARA CONTESTARME.

[@ClassicsExplained]

mequierenvolverloco My Spanish is quite basic but I’ll do my best :)

[@marthamendizabal2630]

Holberg Suite is not one of the most popular? That's what brought me here.

[@bryanbennett5236]

Sounds like a spin-off of Don Giovanni or Don Juan in the beginning

[@Packless1]

...yes, it does...! ;-)

[@mypianoschat9475]

CODFISH!!!!!!

[@qalaphyll]

CODFISH

[@WolfgangXP65-67]

The Beyonce be like

[@hilariodaragona4473]

Please add spanish Subtitle

[@ClassicsExplained]

We were just discussing adding subtitles in different languages! Thanks fo the suggestion! We'll work on this!

[@hilariodaragona4473]

@@ClassicsExplained if you send me the script un english I can do the translation. For free off course!

[@ClassicsExplained]

@@hilariodaragona4473 Oh wow! Thank you for this kind offer! Could you share your email address and we will send it to you asap!

[@Malik-Ibi]

@@ClassicsExplained Hi. Are the Spanish subs coming anytime?

[@giladkay3761]

You know the channel is serious when the animator is literally Bach

[@oldoddjobs]

We're too stupid to understand anything without cartoons

[@gil658]

Lmao this video

[@VergilSpardaOfficial]

OIL

[@mikuhatsune9678]

i mwn the

[@ladgf5491]

Mdr😂😂😂

[@CapsCtrl]

I'm Norwegian bro, and im sorry, but your Norwegian accent is HORRIBLE! Other than that it's a great video tho

[@ClassicsExplained]

Sorry about that! Yeah, trust me, as a Russian myself I am not happy with Ben's Russian accent either :) but that's not the point of our videos. And hopefully it's something that adds an extra pinch of fun!

[@CapsCtrl]

@@ClassicsExplained Yeah, the video was really great and it deserves a lot more views :)

[@SIeipner]

Your Norwegian accent sounds french :-P

[@ClassicsExplained]

@@SIeipner :))

[@nathanweber354]

Ngl your characterization of Grieg is really disrespectful

[@ClassicsExplained]

No disrespect intended at all - in fact, we want this video to help those who maybe don’t know his music too well to fall in love with the composer and his music! The humour is tongue-in-cheek - just trying to make classical music feel a bit less stuffy :)

[@nathanweber354]

@@ClassicsExplained Ah, I see. I watched a couple other videos you posted and they seemed fine. This one just seems off, I guess.

[@plywoodcarjohnson5412]

I realise now why the music is famous. (And the story is not.)

[@knuthenriksommer4982]

The play «Peer Gynt» is one of the most famous plays from the worlds second most played dramaticians (second to Shakespeare only). So the story is somewhat famous I would say.

[@chicolofi]

"In the Hall of the Mountain King" made me fall in love with classical music 40 years ago. I'm still in love with it.

[@keithtwort9655]

A lot of people don’t realise the hall of the mountain king is a choral piece! I know someone who had a dog they called Grieg. Because it used to pee agint suite!

[@ThunderWorkStudioAMGE]

That piece is the reason I started playing the bassoon.

[@chicolofi]

@@ThunderWorkStudioAMGE That's fantastic!

[@allmycircuits8850]

@@keithtwort9655 Nice change after Beethoven dogs!

[@kirbyculp3449]

Proto punk rock?

[@MarkFilipAnthony]

Peer Gynt is a satire on the Norwegian every-day-man character 'Espen Ashlad', the hero of many fairytales While Espen is kind, jolly and helpfull, Peer is selfish, greedy and needy. In many ways is Peer Gynt a comment on the average Norwegian at the time, pointing out all the biast of Romanticism and drunk self-centered people. Peers Journey is about him being confronted by different challanges, but unlike Espen Ashladd that always solves it perfectly and gets help from strangers, Peer avoids and runs away. Only looking for the easy way out. By doing so he looses more and more of an identity, and now only becomes a shell of a man. He has no spine, no real personality and no propper identity, so there are no reasons on why he should exsist.

[@nooneinparticular5256]

And I personally feel that a lot of the themes and messages could resonate especially well, today. Characters like the Boyg and the Button Moulder feel hauntingly relevant, today.

[@_littlefish_]

Thank you for the background information.

[@EmpyrealEndemic]

I love you a little bit for explaining that bit kind stranger

[@peervermeiren8902]

wow, did not know, learnt a lot today

[@TheMovieCreator]

In addition to that, it’s also a satire on Ibsen's own previous plays. His typical style was melodramas, overly firm personalities, serious themes with social interaction of the characters at center, usually taking place in a single scene/setting and during the course of a limited timeframe (f.ex. an evening). The whole Peer Gynt play is the polar opposite of all that. Maybe Ibsen was fed up with all the public critique he had previously received?

[@al4381]

Remember us when your channel inevitably booms

[@ClassicsExplained]

haha! Love this comment - thank you so much for your support

[@r-bascus]

You should have included Solveig's song as well. But it's a long story, and not easy to fit it all in 8 minutes.

[@ClassicsExplained]

We adore Solveig's song - but as you say, we know attention can wane after a few minutes so would love people to be sufficiently interested to go off and search for themselves its beauty!

[@RUBPROMAL]

Nice video, maybe Die Zauberflöte for the next one? Or La Boheme

[@ClassicsExplained]

RUBPROMAL thank you for the suggestions! We’ll certainly make videos on these two some time in the future

[@sophiatalksmusic3588]

WHERE HAS THIS CHANNEL BEEN ALL MY LIFE

[@ClassicsExplained]

This is so sweet! Thank you! we promise we'll be make more videos

[@BusaLeLizwe1]

Love the videos. Sharing. Would certainly like to see The Magic Flute be presented.

[@ClassicsExplained]

Thank you for your feedback and suggestion - adding it to our list :)

[@mygirlbossempireiscrumblin108]

Fun fact: Ole Bull was also Grieg's (fairytale) uncle, since his brother married to the sister of Grieg's mother.

[@Chwkbaseballplayer]

His Norwegian Dances, which you played at the beginning of this video, are some of my favourite pieces to play with an orchestra!

[@ClassicsExplained]

Thanks for this comment! Yes, we wanted to start the video with a bit of Peer Gynt that people would not be so familiar with

[@oceanelf2512]

I was always curious what Anitra in this story was like. My eldest niece is named Anitra.

[@mmarci23]

Hall of mountain king same recording as classical collection 2001 orchestrated and classical animals orchestrated

[@kasperchristensen8416]

You must write the entire piece with ... a herring!

[@nooneinparticular5256]

I realize your focus is on the music, rather than the story (just as virtually everyone else, regarding Peer Gynt. Üuuuug...), and that the focus on the music is the shtick of your channel, but I feel you could do just a liiittle bit better with describing the end. More accurately, Peer's Adventures have more been him running from his problems, and trying to come to terms with his own identity (or lack thereof). And realizes that his selfish actions have also been keeping him from being himself. He actually goes to Solveig, hoping she would hate him enough to give him identity, but she thanks him for the stories he left, and has no ill feelings towards him. So, I guess he is 'saved' by her, still. Admittedly, this probably wouldn't lead to as clear a happy ending as you might have wanted, so, I suppose I can understand the need to soften it.

[@johanneswerner1140]

Yes, it is a really strange and sad story. Read when I was learning Norwegian, living just across from Troldhaugen, felt veldig inspirert, jo da!

[@TristanMA]

Grieg also composed March of the Trolls, In Autumn, The Last Spring, Piano Concerto in A Minor, Wedding Day at Trouldhaugen, and From Holberg's Time.

[@MaryBethHarvey]

Fantastic thank you. I was just trying to explain to my kids the origin of that "Hair Up" music from the Trolls movie. This video did the job perfectly for me :) they loved all the codfish.

[@ClassicsExplained]

Oh, Thank you for your lovely feedback! it's so great to hear your kids enjoyed it as well!

[@MaryBethHarvey]

@@ClassicsExplained they did, they were in stitches & learnt something new :) then they wanted to watch your Pictures at an Exhibition & The Ring Cycle videos which we all enjoyed & went on to listen to the Ring Cycle all afternoon haha. Good times. All because they liked the Trolls soundtrack. I look forward to seeing more Classics Explained :)

[@ClassicsExplained]

@@MaryBethHarvey Thank you so much!! We will publish more! What else would your children like to learn about?

[@MaryBethHarvey]

@@ClassicsExplained definitely something ballet related? Tchaikovsky's ballets or Coppelia are most familiar to them :)

[@dylanzhang3275]

Ole Bull . . .

[@austinvoelker9270]

May I ask, what is the section name of the first piece of work played at the begin. It sounds so wonderful and deep. Makes me think of both a European backwoods and deep southern American draw.

[@ClassicsExplained]

Thank you for your feedback! The music in the very beginning of our video is from the part called "Springar Dance" - Act 1, Scene 3. It is very beautiful indeed!

[@austinvoelker9270]

@@ClassicsExplained Thank you very much, i've tried looking before and thought the piece was Halling in act 1. But I realized the video played the piece during the part with the violinist bull. So thank you again, it sounded so beautiful and the only way to hear it was with the word "Codfish" said over and over again while it played. Also I like these video quite a lot, I can't wait for the next one to come out.

[@thestarwarsmusiccomposer3491]

4:32

[@mmarci23]

4:32 🤣🤣

[@diegoalro]

i'm a stage director and playwright. i really like your videos and i've been studying peer gynt for years. i love what you do and would love to collaborate with you sometime. i think your music analysis, as well as the relationship between grieg and ibsen is spot on, however your understanding of the plot is pretty lacking, and i'm sure you would enjoy grieg's music much more by having a better understanding of the plot. i really love your videos and i think i have a lot to learn from you, but i also think the quality of your videos would grow enormously by collaborating with someone who could help you get a better understanding of the stories and background behind each piece. i'd love to.

[@kasetophono]

This channel makes me happy

[@kirbogdiconguy82]

We Like cYsmix - Peer Gynt, and this isnt cysmix Ive been clickbaited