Holberg Suite

Although not as famous as Grieg's incidental music from Peer Gynt, which is itself usually performed as arranged in a pair of suites, many critics regard the works as of equal merit.

[1] The Holberg Suite was originally composed for the piano, but a year later was adapted by Grieg himself for string orchestra.

It is an early essay in neoclassicism, an attempt to echo as much as was known in Grieg's time of the music of Holberg's era.

"[3] However, the version for string orchestra differs in a number of respects from the solo piano original.

The prelude in the piano version opens with a series of arpeggios: The orchestral version replaces these with chords repeated in a dactylic rhythm: Another striking transformation occurs in bars 31 to 34 of the prelude, which was originally conceived for piano as follows: