☰ Ostinato

The occasion for the composition, described as a “suite in the old style”, was the 200th birthday of the Norwegian-Danish poet Ludvik Holberg (1684–1754), which was celebrated in Bergen with several festive events. Initially, a piano version of the work was written in August 1884, but the composer already had the arrangement for string orchestra in mind, which he made just one month later. As a starting point, Grieg chose baroque dance movements from Holberg’s era, but skilfully combined them with elements of his own tonal language, such as chromatic progressions and dynamic swells. The orchestral version of the “Holberg Suite”, which was very successful right from the beginning, is still one of Grieg’s most popular compositions today and now enriches the Henle programme for string orchestra.