There is a growing opinion that Harald Sigurd Johan Saeverud might be Norway's greatest composer. His long life (1897 - 1992), left behind not only large amounts of outstanding music but also generations of composers whom he taught, including his son Ketil Hvoslef, who took his mother's surname as his professional name.

Harald Saeverud became a heroic figure to the anti-Nazi resistance during World War II with his Kjempeviseslatten (Ballad of Revolt) and three wartime symphonies of protest.

Saeverud did not write this incidental music in any sense to reject or supplant the famous music Grieg wrote in 1876 for Ibsen's epic Peer Gynt. The initial impulse seems to have sprung from British stage director Tyrone Guthrie, who used Grieg's music in his 1944 Old Vic Theatre production and grew dissatisfied by its Romanticism, which was at odds with his concept of the play. Norwegian producer Hans Jacob Nilsen accepted Guthrie's idea that Peer Gynt was not a Romantic play, and even wrote a book, Peer Gynt, an Anti-Romantic Work, published in 1948. Meanwhile he had begun working with poet Henrik Rytter to translate Ibsen's play into Nynorsk, a second language in Norway, and engaged Saeverud to write music using the Nynorsk text and to express their anti-Romantic view of the play.

The production was premiered at The Norwegian Theater in Oslo in 1948. As was the case with Grieg's music, Saeverud used a small orchestra (24 players in his case) and wrote numerous cues and longer pieces. The music has been arranged for piano, and 13 of the more substantial numbers constitute the two suites for standard orchestra that Saeverud prepared from the music.

The contents of the two suites are:

Suite No. 1:

1. The Devil's Five-Hop

2. Dovre-Troll's Jog

3. Psalm against the Bøyg

4. Mixed Company

5. Solveig Sings

6. Anitra

Suite No. 2:

1. Peer-ludium

2. Bridal Dance

3. The Threatener

4. Graveside Hymn

5. Tvinnan (a dance with intertwined melodies)

6. Here was my Empire, Ashes and Mists

7. Sleep my precious, my darling boy.

In this writer's opinion, Saeverud's music is equally inventive and colorful as Grieg's and comparison of the two scores to the same drama is fascinating. The more exotic supernatural and foreign adventures constitute most of Suite No. 1, including a weird 5/4 devil's dance, a sequel to "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and an "Anitra's Dance" that is way ahead of Grieg's in exoticism, eroticism, and danger. This suite includes a soprano to depict Solveig, Peer's faithful love, singing a simple folk-like tune.

Suite No. 2 deals with Peer's character (distinctly less than admirable). He brags to his mother about his great adventures, disrupts a wedding, and meets Solveig for the first time, then threatens her for refusing to dance with him. In an interlude, a dance of intertwined melodies for two musicians is heard, then in the final four movements, an aged Peer realizes the futility of his life of wandering and finally accepts settled life with Solveig.

© All Music Guide