Symphony Preview, May 4, 5: Incidentally speaking

Peer Gynt
Photo:: Robert Torres

This weekend, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) Music Director Stéphane Denève returns to conduct the orchestra, chorus, and soloists in the final concert of the season. There’s only one thing on the program: a rewritten serio-comic version of Henrik Ibsen’s 1876 epic play/poem “Peer Gynt” by writer/actor/director Bill Barclay using the original music by Edvard Grieg (1843–1907). First staged for the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2017 and then taken on the road, this “Peer Gynt” shrinks Ibsen’s five-hour, 40-scene spectacle down to just over two hours (including intermission) with eight actors taking on the play’s 21 roles.

Although popular in Norway, Ibsen’s elaborate five-act tragedy about the globetrotting adventures of a feckless young man who seems afflicted with terminal immaturity has not traveled as well as the great dramatist's other works. Grieg's incidental music, on the other hand, has become an international favorite, thanks to the composer's ability to create appealing themes and paint vivid orchestral pictures of the play's action.

Edvarg Grieg

Grieg wrote around 80 minutes of music for the play, but most concertgoers have heard only the eight pieces Grieg collected in his two suites. And even those have been reworked for concert purposes.

The popularity of the suites is hardly surprising, though. The full score, consisting of 26 numbers, wasn’t published until a year after the composer’s death, in an edition by Norwegian composer Johan Halvorsen (1864–1935). To confuse things even more, the score was thought to be lost until 1986 or thereabouts. It was finally published by Edition Peters in 1988.

I haven’t been able to determine how many of those 26 numbers Barclay managed to include in his concert theatre version of the play, but I was able to locate a recording by Ole Kristian Ruud and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra of what’s billed as the “Complete Play With Complete Incidental Music,” even though it runs less than two hours. But the “complete incidental music” part does appear to be correct, so I pulled all the musical numbers (including the ones that include dialog) and used them to create a new playlist on Spotify:

Yes, there are 27 tracks instead of 26. That’s because the recording breaks score No. 12—“The Death of Åse (Prelude to Act III”)—into two separate tracks. That’s understandable since the prelude music is repeated, pianissimo, as underscore for the scene in which Peer’s mother, Åse, actually dies. Since that scene is described in detail in Yvonne Frindle’s excellent program notes, I thought you might like to hear what it sounds like in performance, even if it is in Norwegian.

Listening to Greig’s complete score this way can be a revelation if your only prior experience to the music comes from the two suites. As much as I love them, I have to admit that they leave out a lot of worthy music, including the two brief appearances by the traditional Norwegian Hardanger fiddle (played this weekend by Nordic folk musician Vidar Skrede).

It's also a treat to hear the chorus adding genuine menace as a mob of trolls in the extended “Mountain King” sequence. And the small group of women chorus members singing the roles of the rude “Herd Girls” taunting Peer in Ibsen’s Act II should be fun.

Camilla Tilling
Photo: Maria Östlin

Greig wrote two lovely songs for Solveig (who inexplicably finds something loveable in the otherwise reprehensible Peer). “Solveig’s Song” is the only one that made it into the suite, and then only as an instrumental. This weekend you’ll be able to hear both it and the touching “Solveig’s Cradle Song” from Ibsen’s Act V, sung by Swedish soprano Camilla Tilling, who has substantial credits on both opera and concert stages.

There is much more to be said about Ibsen’s play, Grieg’s music, and the uneasy partnership between the two. Fortunately that’s all covered rather well in the SLSO program notes, so there’s no need for me to repeat it all here. The official Concert Theatre Works “Peer Gynt” web site also has some video sneak peeks which I highly recommend.

The Essentials: Music Director Stéphane Denève returns to conduct St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in the regular season finale, “Peer Gynt.” Soprano Camilla Tilling sings the role of Solveig and Vidar Skrede plays the Hardanger fiddle. The production is written and directed by writer/actor/director Bill Barclay and includes most of the incidental music Greig wrote for the play. See the SLSO program notes for a complete list of credits. Performances are Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 3 pm, May 2 and 3, at the Stifel Theatre.