Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

About this event

This evening is devoted entirely to the music of Edvard Grieg, moving from a short Symphonic Dance to the celebrated Piano Concerto in A minor and concluding with the extensive incidental music for Henrik Ibsen’s dramatic poem Peer Gynt. Audiences in the Alte Oper’s Great Hall are in for a direct encounter with the Nordic musical tradition, played by an orchestra that is steeped in this repertoire like almost no other. The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1765 and closely associated with Grieg during his own lifetime, delivers an authentic, warm orchestral sound under Norwegian conductor Tabita Berglund. Berglund, who has a particular affinity for Scandinavian music, brings out the shimmering blend of ceremony, nature poetry and folk-driven energy that runs through Grieg’s scores. In the piano concerto, the solo part is taken by young pianist Alexander Malofeev, noted for his sensitive readings of Romantic concertos. He navigates both the work’s explosive outbursts and its songlike melodies. Hardanger fiddler Ragnhild Hemsing adds the distinctive drone-inflected timbre of her instrument, creating a bridge between Norwegian folk tradition and the classical concert stage. In the Peer Gynt music she joins the orchestra and soprano Victoria Randem to conjure a mythical realm of trolls, mountain halls and dawn light – moments that have delighted concertgoers for generations.