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Michael Finnissy: Grieg Quintettsatz and Grieg: Piano Quintet (completed by Michael Finnissy)

World premiere performances: Kreutzer Quartet, Roderick Chadwick (piano), Wilton’s Music Hall, 10 June 2008. World premiere performance of Grieg: Piano Quintet revision, Bergen International Festival, 31 May 2013. Recorded on Michael Finnissy: Grieg Quintet (Metier, 2013).

The principal question arising from this project is: what is the extent of the distinctive interpretational issues that arise from a co-authored work? This question is particularly pertinent in relation to the Grieg Quintet completion and Quintettsatz because there is a whole spectrum of interaction between Michael Finnissy and Edvard Grieg across both works (for example, the Hardanger material that emerges in one and evolves in the other).

Throughout the whole process (premiere – revision – recording – premiere of the revision), Finnissy’s involvement led to discussion as to the nature of the Grieg material. When it was suggested to him that his own inventiveness in the recapitulation might be revelatory even to Grieg, he responded that several people had made this observation, but he was trying to imagine what Grieg might have written on his compositional “desert island”. This palpable level of identification across 100 years demonstrates why it was important to engage with how Finnissy questions our understanding of Grieg and his performance practice.

The first phrase of the B flat major completion encapsulates this. Chadwick was prepared to act as a virtual cipher for Finnissy’s delicate, articulated view of the phrasing, even though it was different to his own initial conception of a long melodic line establishing a melos for a substantial 30-minute movement. The composer’s active involvement in this ‘set-up’ then pervaded much of the ensuing interaction between the ensemble, and the players’ spontaneity and deep familiarity with Finnissy’s sense of invention allowed it to influence the performance at micro and macro levels.