President of the International Edvard Grieg Society and Director of the Edvard-Grieg-Forschungsstelle at the Berlin University of the Arts

Edvard Grieg was still a student at Leipzig Conservatory, when he first made the acquaintance of Franz Liszt. According to Grieg's records, there was a composer's meeting from 1st to 4th June 1859 in Leipzig. Grieg used to record meticulously in his diary-like "Student's Programme book"1 all the concerts he attended. Among the entries for 1859 is a concert on 1st June in the Stadttheater, at which Liszt and August Ferdinand Riccius conducted. Grieg was once again in the audience the following day, when Liszt's Graner Festival Mass was given in the St Thomas Church.

These were only distant contacts, and one wonders what connection Liszt and Grieg had in later years. Here the city of Rome seems to have played a significant role, for it was here that their next meeting took place, when they got to make each other's acquaintance for the first time.

Liszt was almost 32 years Grieg's senior. When Grieg first came to Rome and saw Liszt in a concert, he made the following laconic entry in his diary: "Concert with Pinelli. Saw Liszt who was flirting with some young ladies."2 At this time (22nd December 1865) Grieg was 22, Liszt 54. Pinelli was a well-known Rome violinist, well acquainted with Liszt.

On 4th January 1866 Liszt appears once again in Grieg's diary, this time with a concert of "sacred music for castrati, natural male voices and harmonium, directed by Liszt, who, while he wasn't actually the conductor, controlled the whole performance from the organ loft with his black-gloved fingers, now busy on the keys, now waving in the air"3. Grieg went on to philosophise about the collapse of German and Italian music and concluded the day's entry with the comment: “Liszt was superb in his Abbot's cloak, and looked the real visionary”.4

Liszt was at this time at the high point of his career as a virtuoso, and enjoyed unequalled reputation and authority. One should not take Grieg's somewhat cool, even critical approach too seriously; after all he had graduated from the Leipzig Conservatory only three years previously. He held Liszt both as pianist and composer in the highest esteem. On 31st January we find in his diary: "Afternoon at Pinelli's concert, one of the most interesting I have ever experienced. Sgambati played a piano concerto of Liszt's, a work brilliantly designed to show off the merits of both soloist and composer. Certainly the best piece I have heard of Liszt's - a work of genius from beginning to end."5 Giovanni Sgambati was incidentally Liszt's best student in Rome as well as a close friend.

What was it then that brought a so much younger colleague to Liszt's attention? On his arrival in Rome in 1865, Grieg had two completed works with him, both from the same year. One was the piano sonata in E minor op. 7, the other the F major violin sonata op. 8, sometimes better known as Grieg's "Spring Sonata". The violin sonata Grieg played with the afore-mentioned violinist Pinelli. Who knows, maybe Liszt heard it, or at least heard of it from Sgambati or Pinelli.

Grieg's daily life as a composer and musician in his native Norway was far from easy. He missed the regular contact and exchange with his European colleagues. It was no surprise then, that 1868 saw him planning a further trip to Rome. He needed some financial assistance for the project and applied for a government grant. One of his referees for the grant was none other than Franz Liszt, who wrote a recommendation that must have been decisive.

Grieg's Danish friend, the composer Niels Ravnkilde who lived in Rome, had written to Grieg telling him that Liszt had played the violin sonata. Grieg made bold to ask Ravnkilde if he could persuade Liszt to write a reference for him. Liszt did so forthwith, and in the letter (written in French) included the following invitation to Weimar: "Should you come to Germany this winter, I would like to invite you to spend some time in Weimar so we can get to know each other better."6

Grieg got his scholarship and arrived in Rome in the winter of 1869, arriving, as before, just before Christmas. In a letter to his parents, Griegs describes his meeting with Liszt:
"He came smiling towards me and said, in his kindly way: ‘So we have been corresponding, haven't we?’ I told him that I owed my presence in Rome to him."7
This time Grieg had brought his second violin sonata from 1867 with him. Liszt asked him to play it. In the same letter Grieg describes how, "when the sonata reached the point in the Adagio where the violin makes it's second entry, Liszt joined in, playing the violin part in octaves up the top of the piano, phrasing it so beautifully that I just had to smile to myself happily"8. At the end of the letter Grieg suggests that it was perhaps the Norwegian flavour of this sonata that so much appealed to Liszt, and indeed he was later to christen it the "Nationalist" sonata. The first sonata was entitled the "Naive", the third "On the far Horizon".

Grieg light-heartedly describes another meeting with Liszt, this time concerning Grieg's Piano Concerto op 16. Grieg wrote "Just to play a piece is not enough for Liszt. He makes constructive comments, and nods his head, now left, now right, particularly when a passage appeals to him."9 Liszt's parting remark to Grieg was of special significance to the young composer. "Continue the good work", he said "I tell you, you have what it takes, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!"10

Certainly it was not just as a mark of gratitude and friendship that Grieg dedicated his 1871 work "Before a Southern Convent" to his new sponsor Liszt. In particular it conjures up memories of the Church and Monastery of Santa Francesca in Rome, where Grieg had be to see Liszt.

Grieg's G minor String Quartet dates from 1877/78, and in the autumn of the latter year the first performances took place in Cologne and the Gewandhaus concert hall, Leipzig. One again Grieg's most disliked critic Eduard Bernsdorf wrote a vicious and illinformed review. Liszt, however, recognised the significance of the work when he heard it for the first time in 1879 in Wiesbaden, and was full of praise. He wrote: "It is a long time since I have heard a new work, particularly a string quartet, which has interested me as much as this outstanding and unusual work from Grieg."11

Grieg finally made the trip to Weimar in 1883. His "Two Elegiac Melodies" were on the concert programme, and he himself played the op 16 Piano Concerto. This concert marked the start of a three-month tour of Germany and Holland. Of the Weimar concerts, Grieg was to write: "This was a good beginning, for which I have Liszt to thank. He was really very good to me."12 And in a letter to his Norwegian friend Frants Beyer Grieg described the performance of the "Two Elegiac Melodies". "It was wonderful how they were played; unimaginably thrilling crescendos and pianissimos, and a fortissimo that was a whole world of sound. And what's more. the Germans really got into it! I was on the podium, and above the applause I heard from the box on my left a familiar noise, a peculiar grunt that Liszt used to make when he was particularly satisfied."13

In an interview shortly before his death in 1907 Grieg was asked how he saw his music in the context of musical history. In his answer Grieg referred back to Liszt, who had once said of Thalberg "His genre is small, but among the small he is great."14 "Much the same could be said of me"15 added Grieg.

Looking back at the relationship between Grieg and Liszt and comparing their careers, one sees that Grieg's at first distant respect for Liszt as composer and pianist was repaid by Liszt with recognition, encouragement and support. If Rome has been put forward as the starting point of their association, then it is only superficially so; the basis of their mutual appreciation lay in their personal musical language. Just as the frequent Norwegian character of Grieg's music appealed to Liszt, it was the vast sound world of Liszt's music that so entranced Grieg.