The international reputation of Edvard Hagerup Grieg towers over that of all other Norwegian composers, just as Henrik Ibsen remains far and away Norway's most celebrated writer and Edvard Munch the country's most famous painter and graphic artist. Grieg, who was born on 15 June 1843, grew up in a musical family. His mother was a fine pianist and his father - a merchant of Scottish extraction who was also the British consul in Bergen - counted several dedicated amateur musicians among his forebears. It was the great Norwegian violinist Ole Bull, however, who persuaded Grieg's parents that their son was talented enough to become an outstanding professional musician. At the age of 15, Edvard was sent to study at the Leipzig Conservatory, one of Europe's most important, which he hated but from which he graduated four years later. In his early 20s he spent a good deal of time in Copenhagen, because in those days the Danish capital was a second home to Norwegian artists and intellectuals. And yet, during the same period, he became interested in Norwegian folk music - an interest that helped him to achieve the unique, personal style that his earliest works had lacked. Within little more than a decade, he had made so great a name for himself that the Norwegian government granted him an annual stipend to augment his earnings from his work. Despite a chronic respiratory ailment that plagued him throughout his adult life, he frequently travelled abroad to conduct his orchestral works, to play his compositions for solo piano, to participate in performances of those of his chamber works that included piano, or to accompany his wife (also his first cousin), Nina Hagerup, in the many songs that he had written with her voice in mind. He met Brahms, Tchaikovsky and other utstanding composers, and his familiarity with the high level of musical performance in Europe's musical capitals led him to engage in an ongoing battle to raise standards in Norway. Grieg's health worsened seriously in 1900, but he continued to work and travel until shortly before his death at the age of 64. His funeral was an occasion of mourning throughout the country.

Harvey Sachs

Biographical notes (c) 1996, reprinted by permission of Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg

A selection of major works:

Orchestral: 2 Elegiac Melodies, "Holberg" Suite, In Autumn, Lyric Suite, 4 Norwegian Dances, Old Norwegian Romance with Variations, Symphony in C minor, Symphonic Dances, Piano Concerto.

Chamber: 2 String Quartets, 3 Violin Sonatas, Cello Sonata Instrumental solo: Lyric Pieces, Piano Sonata, Norwegian Folksongs and Dances.

Vocal: Songs.

Stage works: Peer Gynt (incidental music), Sigurd Jorsalfar.