Unsung Grieg

[sdtom]

I remember being impressed although my friends said that he had no business writing a symphony. I enjoy it today.

[eschiss1]

Not knowing anything about your friends' musical tastes or the quality of their judgment otherwise [].

Remember that Grieg certainly esteemed the work enough to have published _part_ of it fairly soon after composition (the inner movements, maybe the best part), in piano duet reduced form; it's not as though he threw the whole thing in a locked drawer and threw away the key, leaving all four movements to be discovered only posthumously...

[JimL]

He just got discouraged after hearing Svendsen's 1st Symphony and decided that he couldn't live up to that standard.  Probably harsh self-criticism (with a dash of relief that nobody would be looking to HIM to compose more symphonies).

[sdtom]

you probably hit the nail on the head jim.

[eschiss1]

Which, fortunately, did not prevent him from writing both a string quartet and a cello sonata that can hold their heads high, on melodic and formal grounds.

[Alan Howe]

..and the great 3rd Violin Sonata.