Finnissy finishing Grieg
At the Ultima festival, Michael Finnissy will give to versions of Edvard Grieg’s unfinished Piano Quintett.
– Why did you decide to complete Grieg¹s unfinished piano quintet? – It was an interesting and unusual challenge, and not something I would have thought of doing for myself. I was approached by a ‘cellist-colleague at
Southampton University, who suggested I looked at the published ‘sketch’ (an exposition torso of roughly 300 bars) with a view to completing it for a
concert he wanted to give. I said ‘No’ initially, he then tempted me further by asking me to write a companion quintet, and I thought it would be
interesting to ‘document’ my work on the Grieg. In effect doing the work twice, once with the real Grieg torso, and the second time with a faked
Grieg torso (using some of his sources – Lindeman’s Norwegian folksongs, Mendelssohn, Wagner), and inventing two different completions – one in
Grieg’s style, the other [which I have called ‘Grieg Quintettsatz’] tracing Grieg’s supposed impact on the history of 20th century music. This was also
a way of commenting on the hyper-historicised culture of music now, the persistent nostalgia for 19th century music that exists amongst audiences,
and – if you’re interested – the disproportionate attention and profits fromit that accrue to the media, the CD companies and concert promoters.
- Have you remained faithful to the original, or given it your own interpretation? – In so far as my limited technique permitted I explored the material in my ‘completion’ as Grieg might have, and that is a constraint which I didn’t
want to be obvious or on show. Of course that makes composing extremely tricky, keeping it sounding spontaneous and not temperamentally or emotionally unnatural, trying to make 4-bar and 8-bar phrases all the time! The extended – quite symphonic – structure that I found is actually Lisztian rather more than typical of Grieg. But who knows what might have happened if Grieg had finished it himself?
- What kinds of reactions do you think you will get? – I really cannot predict audience reactions! The small public that has heard the completion in London enjoyed it, I think. But there were no press
reviews, and no interest from the BBC, so I have not had any ‘expert’ response yet. My own ‘Quintettsatz’ was played in Canada in May and had a
very warm response, and considerable and informed interest in the structure of the piece and its ‘postmodern discourse’.
- How important a part of the history of music is Grieg? – His folksong researches made an enormous impact on Bartok and Percy Grainger, his harmonic writing – with its unresolved dissonances – had a
similar impact on Debussy and Ravel. But this is more than a hundred years ago, who cares about unresolved dissonances or supposedly authentic folksong
transcription now? Perhaps Grieg’s musical value was cheapened by, and sacrificed to mass popularity. He is impoortant to my personal history.
- You¹ve said you¹re inspired by your daily walks in the countryside. Grieg was equally inspired by the nature. Is there a kinship there between the two of you? And how do you see your own work «Folklore» compared to Grieg¹s use of traditional Norwegian music? – The first section of my piano cycle ‘Folklore’ is “lovingly and reverentl dedicated to the memory of Edvard Grieg”, and it develops (perhaps corrupts)
elements from Grieg’s ‘Slatter Op.72’. The piece is about uses of the folkloric (a distant memory, as critical elaboration) in a period of passive (perhaps nihilistic) capitulation to technology. The ‘traditional’ is a kind of fantasy construct in the modern world, I’m not sure that it meant the same to Grieg, though he was obviously attempting to preserve an aspect of his culture that he thought significant, possibly overlooked by other people. I cannot really comment on any ‘kinship’ we might have based on walking in the countryside. Lots of people walk in the countryside and feel refreshed or impressed by the experience. Who knows how it happens, but composers produce music, from this experience or from thousands, millions, of other experiences.
- At the Borealis festival, you presented a piece of music that nodded to Debussy and the Dadaists. Are you a musical raven? Or a collector? A transformer? All of the above? – I certainly collect and transform musical material, doesn’t every composer do that? I’ve no feathers and I haven’t built my nest in a chimney-pot – and
Boulez’s music nods to Debussy and Cage’s music to the Dadaists. We might all be ravens then. Or, in some cases, magpies, who pick up bright and shiny
things rather than ‘road-kill’! I’m trying to be open about things that influence me, trying to help people to get a handle on what I’m doing and
where my interests are, and you compare me to a raven?
- You mastered the piano at the age of four. When did you first meet Grieg? – I didn’t ‘master’ anything at the age of four! I started playing the piano and writing music at that age, very clumsily and just like most children.
I’m sixty-three years old now and pretty sure I haven’t mastered very much in the meantime, but that’s still not old enough to have met Grieg in
person. I first found Grieg’s MUSIC when I was about eight or nine years old – a beautiful piece called ‘Kulok’ Op.66 No.1.
Photo: Thor Brødreskift