A twentieth-century Grieg: Leif Ove Andsnes

Geirr Tveitt

Norwegian composer Geirr Tveitt initially immersed himself in the folk music of Norway. While studying in Paris with Arthur Honneger and Heitor Villa-Lobos, he came into contact with the French impressionists and the Groupe des Six. Only twenty-five per cent of Tveitt’s work has survived; the rest went up in smoke in a fire in his studio. For Andsnes, the surviving music has so much quality that it’s time to put the spotlight on this ‘Edvard Grieg of the twentieth century’.