String Quartet No.1 in G minor - Edvard Grieg

Performed by the Oslo String Quartet. I - Un poco andante - Allegro molto ed agitato - Animato - A tempo, tranquillo - Lento - Allegro agitato - Tranquillo - Animato - A tempo, animato e stretto - Largamente - Più tranquillo - Più mosso - Presto - Prestissimo: 0:00 II - Romanze. Andantino - Allegro agitato - Un poco meno allegro - Tempo del Andantino, ma un poco più animato - Allegro agitato - Tempo I - Allegro agitato - Tempo I - A tempo, ma molto tranquillo - Poco animato: 11:20 III - Intermezzo. Allegro molto marcato - Animato - Tranquillo - Animato - Vivo - Più vivo e scherzando - Con fuoco - Tranquillo: 17:31 IV - Finale. Lento - Presto al saltarello - Con fuoco - Presto - Un poco andante - Presto: 23:43 Grieg&String Quartet No.1 was composed between 1877-8, being premiered in Cologne on October 29 of 1878, performed by the Heckmann Quartet led by the work&dedicatee, violinist Robert Heckmann. It was written in the village of Lofthus in the Hardanger region of Norway, after a period in which his parents died, composed "Peer Gynt", and attended the first production of Wagner&Ring Cycle. This work wasn&really the first one; Grieg composed a String Quartet in D minor in the early 1860s as a student work, but it was lost. An astonishingly rich sonority is indeed an obvious characteristic of this piece. All four movements have an extraordinary amount of double-stopping, creating a full-bodied sound that is orchestral but also often folkloric, like the Hardanger fiddle...