Edvard Grieg was born in 1843 in Bergen, Norway and died there in 1907.

Grieg had a very successful career as a concert pianist and composer, and he is still revered by the citizens of Norway for his immense contribution to Norwegian culture. Grieg loved the Norwegian countryside and his home “Troldhaugen” was built on a hill overlooking a lake, near Bergen. Grieg’s wife Nina (née Hagerup) was a lyric soprano and they often performed concerts together.

Wedding Day at Troldhaugen was originally a piano work, composed to commemorate the twenty-fifth “silver” wedding anniversary of Edvard and Nina Grieg, which took place in 1896. The work was first published in a compilation of piano pieces, “Lyric Pieces, Book VIII, Op. 65”, and later became a favourite with orchestrators and arrangers of light music.

Many people have commented that “March of the Siamese Children” from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “The King and I” bears an uncanny similarity to Wedding Day at Troldhaugen. Coincidence or compliment, both works are wonderful pieces of music!