Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, Op. 65 No. 6

Grieg marked the piece Tempo di Marcia un poco vivace. The left hand plays a low D beneath short chords, and a quick triplet leads into the melody.

At Grieg’s silver wedding anniversary, more guests came to Troldhaugen than he and Nina had invited. He wrote this piece in the summer of 1896. Its first title was “The well-wishers are coming”.

The march moves to G major in 2/4, marked Poco tranquillo. A cantando melody passes between the pianist’s hands over soft chords. The busy bass of the opening stops.

On 21 December 1904 the publisher Henri Hinrichsen wrote to Grieg that Wedding Day and the earlier Lyric Pieces were still much played and sold “like hotcakes”.

D major returns at bar 107 with Tempo I. The low octaves, clipped chords and triplet of the opening march are heard again in their original places, after the quiet duet.

Triplets continue over low D octaves as the dynamic falls from p to pp and then ppp, with the soft pedal down. The piece ends on a single D major chord marked fff.

Grieg marks the opening Tempo di Marcia un poco vivace, a march with a little life in it. Low D octaves alternate with clipped chords, and a quick triplet leads into the melody. Grieg himself plays in this recording, made in Paris on 2 May 1903.

Grieg wrote the piece in the summer of 1896, recalling his silver wedding anniversary at Troldhaugen, when far more guests arrived than the couple had invited. His first title was “The well-wishers are coming”.

On 13 May 1903, eleven days after the recording session in Paris, Grieg wrote from Leipzig to Julius Röntgen: “I was glad to say farewell to France, and especially Paris.” The visit left nine short piano recordings, this piece among them.