Grieg plays Grieg To Spring (1903)

[TheSDMM]

Isn't that Albert Einstein?

[TheIlikecookies123]

guys it is a phonograph/gramophone

[bach5861]

disk, cylinder... is it so important? we have a great chance to listen to GRIEG!

[gerardbedecarter]

Thanks for uploading this!

[durekatt]

This is not a cylinder, it is recorded for the Gramophone & Typewriter Company. Who only made discs.

(You can hear from the rythm of the surface noise that this is not a cylinder, a cylinder rotates with 160 rpm, and the surface noise sounds very rytmic)

[achelgeson93]

This recording probably was a 4 minute cylinder, but may have been squeezed into 2 minutes to make it faster.

[JackRance1910]

@achelgeson93 No it's a disc, in the catalogues and a disk. Read up...

[Multibjarne]

I would give my left nut for a concert with Grieg

[Spenelo]

And here I thought I was playing it too fast!! Geez, Grieg, in a rush ey, but still very beautiful!

[kathicu109]

OMG ! This was my wedding theme song in 1972 then, since widowed and remarried, AGAIN in 1994, and at my daughters' 2007 wedding! AND played by Grieg HIMSELF??!!!!! UNFUCKINGBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!

[KawhackitaRag]

Basically, I think great music can be played many ways and still sound good. And, this is certainly great music.

So don't criticize the composer... maybe he was playing it slightly (I highly doubt it was very much more) faster than he would have liked, or maybe not, we may never know, but still enjoy this for what it is, just the way you enjoy other people's performances!

[Agapeh7]

haaha i find it funny that we even have records of grieg playing :D haha

[KawhackitaRag]

@Agapeh7 I find it AMAZING that there are records of him playing... of course I have known of the piano rolls for years. This is really beautiful!

[Agapeh7]

@KawhackitaRag agreed! about grieg playing it too fast, I don't think he would have played it if he could not have played it the way he liked. ;D

[lucasgelati]

Those 00's where a lot better than ours 00's.

[etiam161036]

@Theoshow2 - Mille fois ... MERCI !!! Un trésor!... Piano qui tranmet, ...Instrument merveilleux pour exprimer ce que l' âme et l' intelligence sécrètent dans leur Intimité...

Se possède, et ne se "vend" pas......... Évidemment plus saisissable, venant de sa propre composition...

[MrRagtimer]

I find this too fast.

[heldenbariton]

@MrRagtimer we can play it slower... it was 107 years ago....

[wks1978]

It sounds like Grieg is racing through this piece to squeeze it onto a 2 minute cylinder.

[lektrum]

@wks1978 Quite possible. The cylinder might have been running at an unnaturally high speed as well. It can also be a typical thing you see in when Claude Debussy plays the Claire de Lune faster than what the notes are later interpreted as.

[Fellwander]

He must have really been playing at that speed because if this was playing back too fast the notes would sound higher.

[peacemaker083]

How can I obtain these recordings ?

[KawhackitaRag]

This is of course a definitive version. However I think the Edgar Fairchild and Ralph Rainger recording with orchestra on Brunswick is good too and very impressive!

[thepts]

Add &fmt=18 to the end for high quality!

[uhartchristian]

thats quite a pretty good recording despite its age

[pianotonton]

Sans comparaison aucune avec les rouleaux Welte Mignon ou Duo Art : là, on entend un artiste derrière le clavier... pas avec les rouleaux...

[Gargantupimp]

Thats cause Grieg wasnt a pussy-fag like all of these space age douche bags, and he knew when to go Ballz-out on the tempo.

[paopaomanalansan]

Is this really Grieg playing?

[thomase13]

Yes.

[paopaomanalansan]

Where do they get such recordings?

[Brandotuomikoski]

Old recordings and video play back faster than they were intended to. Just watch an old charlie chaplin video. It looks strange as the people are moving around at a fast and twitchy pace.

Non the less, very good! Love Griegs music!!

[springzhu]

Whoa, this is fast. It's kind of scary.

[creamyfilling102]

this sounds pretty good quality actualy, compared to those 1880's wax crap.

[aivyelisa]

i cant believe that grieg plays here 'live' o_o ♥

[fashionandmusic921]

I know for sure when I go to college I am robbing the household lyric piece book...I just love love love it. amazing.

[LunaLovegood108]

this is really cool! its way faster than the way i played it..

[coolaudrey4567]

So Cool! I can hear Grieg play his own song !! i wish i have this recording!!!!

[blautraud]

lol this is sped up for sure :) you can hear it on the pianosound as well as on the cracking noise

[karlab75]

It's recorded in the tempo Grieg played it, but because of the limited time a record could hold, the pianist had to play faster, or as the case with Wedding Day of Trollhuagen, leave out parts from the piece to make it fit.

[vysehrad]

No, that would make the notes sound higher.

[ilovescarlatti]

Amazing.. we can hear our beloved Grieg playing!!!!!!..

[gigi876]

fantastic (*)

[pegsur]

♫♪♫♪♫♥cute

[professor501]

Beautiful. Grieg has long been a favorite composer of mine. A great writer if there ever was one.

Does anyone know if these recordings available anywhere? If so, I would love to get a copy.

[carvidi]

Please! Grieg is playing his own works as it always has to be because he is the composer.

[allegroconmoto]

A wonderful dramatic interpretation full of spring light at the end !!

[TheDopeMage]

Wow. He plays it fast. Maybe the record's sped up.

[OurHighSchoolLolTeam]

It's not sped up...

[TheDopeMage]

Well, he`s a great COMPOSER than. ;)

[TheDopeMage]

*then*

[carmenaudrey]

ya it is faster because this recording is so old.

[pianoboypiano]

I wonder if he has a youtube account in heaven. LOL!!!!!

[goodridgewinners]

wow...we are really listening to greig play?!?!?!?! that is awesome. and yes...he does play it a lot faster than others.

[LoveLover5]

I think he plays it too fast. I play this peace too but i play it a little slower.

Anyway i enjoy playing and i love it..Spring is spring.

Great job Grieg

[LoveLover5]

He plays nice but i think its too fast.

I play this peace too and i play it a little slower. Not to much. Anyway i enjoy playing it, it is wonderful. :)

[imafanindeed]

I used to play this, as well as "Rustles of Spring" for my 8th grade piano recital--how "vidunderlig" (wonderful) to hear it from Grieg himself--I've been at his house in Bergen--beautiful

[abbjorko]

i'm crying..

[goodridgewinners]

aww...thats beautiful :) it is a real treat/gem though, so i understand why.

[shellshot]

wow... this is really fast, to me it seems to fast, and takes away from the emotional parts. But thats just me, he wrote it. But as for me, I think I'll play it with a little more feeling and not so fast :p.

[pianoboypiano]

But HE'S PLAYING IT HIMSELF. I THINK IF HE WANTED IT SLOWER HE WOULD HAVE DONE SO.

[piano6861]

Composers often do enjoy other people's interpretations that they themselves did not think of.

[wogandmush]

it could be because of the recrding?

[KawhackitaRag]

Well, this depends on whether it was a cylinder or disc recording. They DID have both 2-minute and 4-minute cylinders back then. If this is a 2-minute cylinder, he might have had to play it faster to make it fit, but a 4-minute cylinder would give him time to stretch out. Discs are another story again. Ask a phonograph or record collector about this topic, they would know more.

[sobie99]

This is from a 1903 G&T recording (Gramophone and Typewriter)and was indeed "a disc" "transformingart" has uploaded a Victor repressing from it. Records in those days could only hold a certain recording time. That could be the reason for the faster tempo..although 2 minutes is really short. There's 3 minutes + recordings of that period (same label), so I think Grieg wanted it "this fast"

[clemencie]

Is the speed not dictated by whatever setting the listener chooses on the machine? Or does that only apply to phonographs? There is evidence that performers did vary speeds though to accommodate the technological limitations of the day.

[star1923]

Grieg recorded 9 (G&T) gramophone records in Paris, spring 1903. The original speed might be 71,67 rpm (not 78, this standard came later on). These recordings where transferred to a CD, "Grieg spiller Grieg".

[clemencie]

Ok, Thanks I wasn't sure whether it was a phonograph or a gramophone recording. You have a great collection.

[vysehrad]

Increasing the playback speed would make the notes sound higher.

[KawhackitaRag]

@sobie99 thank you for the insightful comment. I find this plenty decipherable and definitely emotional!

It's funny how people talk about the fast pace of modern-day life, and many old recordings (when they're played at the RIGHT SPEED) seem to imply that in some ways, people's brains must have gone a bit faster back then than they do today, if for no other reason than you need to think fast to catch all the nuances, but... THEY ARE THERE!!!

[KawhackitaRag]

@sobie99 It's so funny, back then, people sometimes wrote these things that were beautiful pieces, with so many nice things going on in them, and then would play them at what we today would consider a fast tempo, since today it is de riguer for most pianists to take these kind of pieces slowly (or at least slower than this).

[KawhackitaRag]

@sobie99 Granted, they did write slower tunes back then too. But I do believe part of the genius of these things is that the pretty bits only momentarily flash, they don't linger. You have to grab them out of the air as soon as they emerge, before they are replaced with something else. It takes sharp ears to do this.

[KawhackitaRag]

@sobie99 I think today's practice of balladizing certain classical pieces definitely has its merits... it can reveal many riches!

BUT - there is a danger of "balladizing" everything until it turns into mush.

If the tune was written with fire and dash, or at least brio, or vim and vigor, (or sprightliness? liveliness?) that should always remain, unless you are deliberately trying to play it differently than the original manner.

[JackRance1910]

@KawhackitaRag Of course it is not a cylinder. It is a G&T commercial issue...

[advisorC101]

@piano6861, Excellent comment.

[pianogirl98]

Thanks for posting!

[NeoComposer]

Nice!!!! Loved it!

[llesmeiriol]

Thanks so much for that - it was great!