Norwegian puppets

Peer Gynt Suites; Edvard Grieg, composer; Berliner Philharmoniker; Herbert von Karajan, conducting

Some time in the early 1970’s, Mom took D. and me to a Young People’s Concert in Donor Auditorium on the campus of SDSU. The highlight of the performance came when a touring marionette theatre from Minneapolis brought portions of the story of Peer Gynt to massive life using puppets and life size marionettes; all to the live accompaniment of Edvard Grieg’s incidental music to Henrik Ibsen’s play “Peer Gynt” as played by the SDSU Civic Symphony.

I don’t remember the puppets very much. But I remember the rapture of hearing a live orchestra, probably for the first time. “In The Hall Of The Mountain King”, “Ase’s Death”, “Anitra’s Dance”, “Morning Mood” and “Solveig’s Song” all sustained a short-term residency in my young biological iPod after that memorable and magical encounter with the great Norwegian composer’s imaginative, folkish, yet, sublime score.

Given the great Scandinavian traditions and culture of the geographical area in which I grew up, I find it fascinating that I never really took on any of the piano literature by Mr. Grieg. Like so many of the truly great composers, Grieg didn’t write very much music for an early piano student to play. Neither did Chopin, Liszt, Brahms or Schubert. To tell the truth, I didn’t really pay any appreciable attention to Mr. Grieg’s music at all until I visited his country. Actually, his hometown. That will be an excellent story. Stay tuned…..

Credits: To Mr. John Colson, for his years of service to SDSU, music education and the SDSU Civic Symphony. Thank you for thinking of the children when you programmed your seasons. The experience “stuck” with at least one young person.