Grieg and Debussy

Imagination is everything. Claude Debussy had never seen the ocean floor, yet his La mer conjures the underwater world in all its splendour. Edvard Grieg, too, brings the sea to the concert hall. ‘I am convinced that my music tastes of cod,’ he claimed, referring to the salty Norwegian folk melodies that permeate his Piano Concerto. Open your ears, and you can smell the sea spray – even more vividly than on the coast itself.