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Grieg Quintettsatz: score and parts

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Grieg Quintettsatz was composed in response to Finnissy’s own completion of Grieg’s Piano Quintet (2007-13), in which he adopted a purely imitative style to render the work performable. Finnissy’s Grieg Quintettsatz is best understood as a work that ‘documents and reviews’ the process of completing an incomplete original, but at the same time is a ‘re-make’ that evokes a historical panorama, slowly sweeping across the twentieth century to the present day. As for Organ Symphony no. 4, Finnissy sees this piece as participating in the process of 'remaking' described by Rosa Olivares. The manuscript of Grieg’s Quintet is contained in a sketchbook dating from the 1890s, which also contains adjacent sketches for a second piano concerto, and for revisions to the incidental music to ‘Peer Gynt’, which are believed to date from 1883-87. Finnissy’s Greig Quintettsatz also takes Norwegian folksong material from Lindeman (whose collection ‘Aeldre og Nyere Norske Fjeldmelodier’ was consulted several times by Grieg) and harmonic material from the second act of Wagner’s Die Walküre, performances of which Grieg had seen at Bayreuth. The exposition, with repeat, is virtually identical in structure, phraseology and texture to the Grieg Quintet fragment. The continuation differs in approach, although still, in effect, being a series of continuous variations of the basic materials - but this time taking account of, in musical allusions to, Grieg’s influence on such composers as Debussy, Ravel and John Cage. The ‘scherzo’ section of the Grieg completion also appears here. An early version of Quintettsatz was performed by the Kreutzer Quartet and Roderick Chadwick (piano), Wilton’s Music Hall, London, 10 June 2008, and the same performers premiered the completed work on 31 May 2013 at the Bergen International Festival.