This article was updated in June 2025.
Ask anyone about Nordic classical music and a few names spring to mind: Edvard Grieg and Jean Sibelius. Their fame is undeniably deserved: both in their own way carved out their own distinct compositional style and helped put their respective homelands on the map, musically speaking. Other, slightly less well-known names may also enter the conversation: most likely the Dane Carl Nielsen or the Swede Wilhelm Stenhammar. Yet all these composers are united in how parts of their bodies of work have been somewhat neglected due to the popularity of a couple of their more famous pieces. We go off-piste into some of those murkier areas of the major Nordic composers’ output, making the case that there really is a need to explore the Nordic canon beyond the hits.
Edvard Grieg and the symphony that wouldn’t stay dead
Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from Peer Gynt has sent schoolchildren hiding beneath the bed since its premiere in 1876, and it’s true that his incidental music for the play, with its folksy evocations of trolls, gnomes and witches, arguably remains the composer’s most famous work. He did, moreover, actively engage with his national identity, having helped to form Euterpe – a society which aimed to promote the work of Nordic composers – in 1864. Yet for all the contributions he made toward forming Norway’s musical identity in the Romantic period, he was at heart as much a cosmopolitan as a nationalist.
A somewhat neglected composition from Grieg’s oeuvre is his C minor symphony – his first and only complete attempt at the form. But an aggressive commentariat or an uncaring public isn’t to blame for this work’s under-appreciated status: in this case, the composer’s own machinations are to blame.
Written at the tender age of just 20, the First Symphony isn’t vintage Grieg. Wearing the composer’s early influences of Mendelssohn and Schumann heavily, it is a somewhat standard Romantic fare that earned the ire of critics: one simply complaining that the symphony was not “Norwegian enough”. In a ruthless act of self-censorship, the work was ensconced in a Bergen library, marked with Grieg’s handwritten legend: “Must never be performed”. There the piece languished for 112 years, studied by musicologists but never copied or performed.
Finally, after much wrangling, the symphony was performed in full for the first time in Russia in 1980, and in Bergen the following year. Finally, audiences could experience Grieg’s early attempt at the symphonic form, and one could argue that they’d been missing out. Though orthodox in its four-movement structure and wearing its influences brazenly on its sleeve, it nevertheless boasts a selection of strong melodies - particularly the flowing romantic theme in the first movement.
Sibelius’ earlier works
Jean Sibelius is arguably the only major Nordic composer to receive international recognition in his lifetime, and his Fifth Symphony is one of his best-known and best-loved works. The exhilarating main theme in the finale, with its evocations of a majestic flight of swans, has captured imaginations since the work received its premiere in 1915. By then, Sibelius was firmly embedded within the cultural fabric of Finland, and indeed he had been asked by the government to compose the work in honour of his own 50th birthday. Yet the pre-eminence of works such as this has slightly overshadowed the considerable achievements of some of his earlier efforts.
One such piece is his Second Symphony of 1902. He began work on the symphony in 1901 while staying in Rapallo, Italy, and a lighter, Mediterranean classical touch can certainly be heard. Moreover, some critics have posited that the second movement was inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy – another Italian inflexion. A short upward motif is laced throughout the work, and the first and second movements are dominated by positive, optimistic-sounding themes. The sense of triumph present in those movements and in the stirring finale chimed in keenly with Finland’s national mood. Russia – which at that time controlled the country – was actively suppressing the Finnish language and culture, and Sibelius’ powerful work was seen as something as a riposte to foreign intervention. So much so, in fact, that the Second Symphony was affectionately named the “Independence Symphony” by contemporary audiences.
Another of Sibelius’ notable early works would be his Violin Concerto in D Minor, completed in 1904. The process was likely bittersweet for the composer: he had originally trained as a violinist, but his compositional prowess quickly overtook his instrumental skills. This may be the reason why, in its first iteration, the work was fiendishly difficult, resulting in a disastrous premiere. After significant revisions to the work, it was performed again by the Berlin Philharmonic (conducted by Richard Strauss), who played the version that we mainly hear today. There is certainly more breathing room between the soloist and orchestra in this version, though the instrumental writing is still undeniably tricky. The virtuosity of the lead violin part increases throughout the opening movement, requiring the soloist to move quickly between the instrument’s highest and lowest registers. The third movement, with its lively dance rhythms and folky tonalities, is another particularly challenging section. This was Sibelius’ only concerto and consequently retains a special place in his body of work.