Peer Gynt, Op. 23

Full stagings of Peer Gynt include over twenty numbers following Ibsen's play about a restless, boastful young Norwegian who wanders the world chasing fortune and fantasy; concert performances typically draw a selection of the most vivid movements. Morning Mood, often used to open a selection, paints a sunrise with a simple, rising flute melody passed gently through the orchestra, though in the play it is heard ironically, set not in Norway but in the Moroccan desert. In the Hall of the Mountain King is the best known excerpt, a single theme repeated over and over, starting hushed and slow in the low strings and building relentlessly in speed and volume to a frenzied, comic climax depicting trolls chasing Peer through their underground hall. Anitra's Dance offers a lighter, more exotic interlude, a flirtatious waltz for strings and triangle. Solveig's Song, often used to close a selection, is the emotional heart of the score, a plaintive melody representing the woman who waits faithfully for Peer's return. Listeners should expect a sequence of short, vivid character pieces rather than one continuous narrative.

Henrik Ibsen asked Grieg to compose incidental music for a staged version of his epic verse play Peer Gynt, and Grieg completed the score in 1875 for a Christiania (now Oslo) premiere the following year. Grieg found the assignment difficult, later admitting he had to work against his own instincts to match Ibsen's wild, satirical fantasy, but the music became far more beloved than the play itself outside Norway. He later extracted two orchestral suites from the incidental music, which is how most of it is heard today; performances of the fuller original score are less common.