Suite „From Holberg’s time“

Edvard Grieg's "Holberg Suite" was originally composed for piano in 1884 and arranged for string orchestra two years later. The work honors the Danish-Norwegian dramatist Ludvig Holberg on his 200th birthday and deliberately draws upon the musical language of the Baroque. Grieg composed a stylized Baroque suite with the traditional dance movements Allemande, Sarabande, Gavotte and Rigaudon, framed by a Prelude and Air.

The suite masterfully combines Baroque formal language with Grieg's unmistakable Romantic harmony. While the outer structure recalls Bach and Handel, typically Norwegian idioms and Grieg's characteristic chromatic progressions permeate the entire work. Particularly in the slow Air, his ability to express profound melancholy and Nordic melancholy with simple means becomes evident.

As one of Grieg's few works for string orchestra, the Holberg Suite is today regarded as a masterpiece of the Romantic neo-Baroque movement. It unites the clarity of classical proportions with the emotional intensity of Romanticism and is said to have met with great acclaim at its first performances.