20 Years Later, He Returned to the Violin With His Most Passionate Music

Edvard Grieg «Violin Sonata No. 3 in C minor». Narrated by Masterpiece Museum. This is the last of Grieg’s three violin sonatas, written in 1886–87 at Troldhaugen, his home overlooking a fjord near Bergen. Three movements for violin and piano. It opens in storm and urgency, softens into a tender romance in the middle, and ends in a rush of energy that feels like wind sweeping across Norwegian mountains. «Violin Sonata No. 3» is more than just a piece of chamber music. Grieg had written his first two violin sonatas as a young man in the 1860s, then left the form alone for nearly twenty years. When he finally returned to it, he wrote something darker and more dramatic than anything he had attempted before. He did not dedicate it to a violinist. He dedicated it to Franz von Lenbach, a celebrated portrait painter in Munich. The sonata was premiered in Leipzig in December 1887 by the violinist Adolph Brodsky, with Grieg himself at the piano. Just weeks later, on New Year’s Day 1888, Grieg sat down to lunch at Brodsky’s home with Brahms and Tchaikovsky, three great composers at one table. In this video, we don’t just play the music. We follow its story through narration. Classical music, the way you’d admire a painting in a museum. Music once offered to a painter, now heard the way we would look at his portraits. Edvard Grieg Violin Sonata No. 3 in C minor Op. 45 «Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 3 in C minor, Op. 45» About Masterpiece Museum: Masterpiece Museum is a classical music channel where great works are experienced through narration. We explore the composer’s life, the story behind each piece, the spirit of the era, and the human drama woven into the music, through quiet visuals and gentle narration. We hope you experience these masterpieces the way you’d admire a painting in a gallery. #MasterpieceMuseum #Grieg #ClassicalMusic #ClassicalMusicLovers