Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46

The suite unfolds in four contrasting scenes, each built around a single vivid idea.

"Morning mood" opens with a flute melody over softly rocking strings, painting a sunrise, later colored by darker harmonies before fading away.

"Ase's death" is a slow, hushed passage for strings alone, its melody sinking lower and quieter, without percussion or brass, evoking a deathbed scene.

"Anitra's dance" is light and lilting, built on a swaying string tune decorated with triangle, suggesting a dancer's teasing, flirtatious movement.

"In the hall of the mountain king" is the piece's best-known moment: a low, creeping bass melody repeats and speeds up, gathering volume and instruments until the whole orchestra crashes in at a furious tempo.

There are brief pauses between movements, but the emotional journey moves steadily from calm, to grief, to charm, to menace, giving first-time listeners four distinct moods in about fifteen minutes.

Grieg composed incidental music in 1875 for Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, a sprawling verse drama following its restless, boastful hero through fantastical adventures. The play premiered in Christiania (now Oslo) in 1876 with Grieg's music woven throughout. Because the full score included over twenty numbers, Grieg later extracted his favorite passages into two concert suites, publishing the first in 1888. Freed from the stage action, these movements became independent concert pieces and quickly outgrew the play itself in popularity. Today the suite is among the most frequently performed orchestral works from the late nineteenth century, valued for its melodic directness and vivid orchestral color.