Grieg in Leipzig
Since 1998, the association has been dedicated to preserving the memory of the Norwegian composer.
Edvard Grieg and Leipzig
It was the composer Edvard Grieg who, with his music, placed Norway on the musical map of the world. For more than half a century, he felt a special connection to Leipzig as well. It was the rich musical life of this city that drew Grieg in – the opportunity to hear new works as well as his own compositions performed superbly by outstanding ensembles and virtuosos. What further bound Grieg to Leipzig was the convivial company of musicians and people interested in music, of important performers and composers whom he met here, among them Johannes Brahms and Pyotr Tchaikovsky, who became his friends.
At just fifteen, Grieg went to Leipzig and studied piano and composition at the conservatory of the time. At the end of his studies, Max Abraham, the head of the Leipzig music publishing house C. F. Peters, noticed the great talent of the young Norwegian in Grieg's early works (Four Piano Pieces op. 1 and Four Songs op. 2) and had them printed. In the years that followed, a firm, lifelong friendship developed between Abraham, his successor Henri Hinrichsen and Edvard Grieg. In 1889, Grieg signed a general contract with C. F. Peters that granted the publisher the sole right to publish his works and secured Grieg – and, after his death, his wife – a comfortable living for life.
Whenever Grieg stayed in Leipzig during the concert season, sometimes for up to half a year, and whenever he took the opportunity for a short stay in Leipzig on his journeys to or from Rome, Paris, Prague, Vienna or Carlsbad, he could always count on the hospitality of the directors of the C. F. Peters music publishing house. The hospitality of the publishers at Talstraße 10 included not only providing a study and a bedroom but also arranging convivial gatherings with composers and performers, obtaining tickets for Leipzig music performances and for the first complete performance of Richard Wagner's Ring tetralogy in Bayreuth, as well as the often elaborate preparation of Grieg's concert appearances in Europe's music cities.
The Grieg Meeting Place
In 1998, 91 years after Grieg's last visit to Leipzig, the association was founded with the aim of establishing a memorial to the Norwegian composer in the building of the C. F. Peters music publishing house at Talstraße 10 – at the time still under the name Edvard Grieg – Gedenk- und Begegnungsstätte Leipzig e.V. In doing so, it followed the words of Henri Hinrichsen, the long-serving head of the publishing house, who in his company chronicle called on future generations to make this historic site accessible to the public. On 7 November 2005, founding president Prof. Dr. Hella Brock received the key.
Since then, the apartment on the first floor has been open to the public, featuring an exhibition on Grieg's life and a historic concert salon from around 1900. Shortly after the rooms were inaugurated, a historic grand piano by the firm J. L. Duysen was also purchased, on which concerts are regularly given – alongside piano recitals, chamber music programmes and song matinées as well. In addition, readings, lectures, receptions and workshops are part of the association's activities, often with a focus on Norway, the history of the C. F. Peters music publishing house or the musical life of Leipzig.
The association is also active in Grieg research: three times already it has hosted the International Edvard Grieg Congress in the trade fair city (most recently in 2016), welcoming guests from Scandinavia, the USA, Great Britain and elsewhere. Since 2016, the Edvard Grieg Research Centre has also housed an academic library focusing on Grieg and Norwegian music in Leipzig, underscoring once again the scholarly profile of the Grieg Meeting Place. A highlight in the still young history of the association was the celebration of Edvard Grieg's 175th birthday in 2018. Numerous visitors accepted the invitation to the concerts, lectures and receptions at the Grieg Meeting Place, as well as at Leipzig's Old Town Hall and the University Church of St. Pauli.