Edvard Grieg - Peer Gynt Suites 1 and 2 -- Jean Sibelius - Pelleas et Melisande - Berliner Philharmoniker - Herbert von Karajan

Peer Gynt is a play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was written in 1867, and first performed in Oslo (then called Christiania) on 24 February 1876, with incidental music by the composer Edvard Grieg. Ibsen wrote Peer Gynt while traveling in Rome, on Ischia and in Sorrento. It was first published on November 14, 1867, in Copenhagen. The first edition comprised 1,250 copies. It was followed by a re-print of 2,000 copies after 14 days. The large sales were mostly due to the success of Ibsen's previous play, Brand. Unlike Ibsen's other later plays, Peer Gynt is written in verse. This is because it was originally intended to be a written drama, not for stage performance. Difficulties due to rapid and frequent change of scene (including an entire act in pitch darkness) render the play troublesome to perform. It is also unlike Ibsen's later plays in that it is a fantasy rather than a realistic tragedy.


Pelléas et Mélisande (Op. 46) is a 1905 incidental music suite by Jean Sibelius. Sibelius was one of a number of composers to compose music based on Maurice Maeterlinck's 1892 drama Pelléas et Mélisande. While Debussy composed a five act opera, Sibelius was content with an eight movement orchestral suite, which he completed in 1905.

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