More research on Edvard Grieg's piano music

The Norwegian Institute of Recorded Sound attracts researchers from abroad to come to Stavanger because of the huge archival sound collection. The music of Edvard Grieg which forms a special part of the collection is of particular interest.

Text: Dag Trygve Henriksen
Published: 24.10.2008

PhD student Georgia Volioti at the Norwegian Institute of Recorded Sound, posing with one of the recordings she is using for her research project, Slåtter op. 72 played by the pianist Andor Foldes on a Mercury LP

The past week, Georgia Volioti, a PhD student from the Royal Holloway University of London has visited the Institute as part of her research on performance history and different performing traditions on the piano music by Grieg. She has used timing data from a range of recordings of Griegs Butterfly op. 43 no. 1, finding beats per minute thus being able to detect exact tempos and tempo changes for every performance. From this statistical material, she groups the performances into different traditions as well as compares the performances with Edvard Griegs own 1903 Paris recording of the piece. Her project now goes further on as she will analyse some of Grieg’s “Slåtter” op. 72 as well, focusing on tempo, dynamic changes and the correlation between these two musical parameters, indeed an interesting aspect.

I asked Georgia Volioti to write a little piece on her work and her impressions on working in Stavanger. She writes:

"As a PhD student working on the piano music of Edvard Grieg from recorded performances, a visit to the Norwegian Institute of Recorded Sound in Stavanger was an inevitable and invaluable part of my studies.

My research focuses on tracing stylistic changes in performance history of a selection of the Lyric Pieces and a small number of the Slåtter dances op. 72. During a brief visit to Stavanger I was able to access more recorded performances of the Slåtter pieces, listen to more Norwegian folk music as performed on the Hardanger fiddle – again from recordings – and browse through the extensive collection of the Lyric Pieces on record.

I found the open and welcoming atmosphere of the Institute - one can simply walk in and listen to recordings – and the willingness of the staff to help, very friendly and accommodating to my research needs.

Being surrounded by so much music was both inspiring and exciting, and I am very glad to have had the opportunity to access the Institute’s resources."

Georgia Volioti has background in Biology, but after graduating from Imperial College with first class honours and doing some research on experimental cellular and molecular biology, she abandoned further Biology studies and got into music. She completed her Master degree with distinction in 2005 at the Royal Holloway University, then being appointed a CHARM research studentship in 2006, thus continuing her Grieg research. She plans to present her thesis at the Royal Holloway University of London in 2009. We look forward to get extended knowledge on the performance history of Edvard Grieg’s piano music.