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Classical new release: Grieg and Delius Piano Concertos

Premiered in 1869, Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor is one of the most popular piano concertos ever written. Grieg was just 24 years old when he wrote it. The month after the concerto's premiere, his toddler daughter died of viral meningitis, and his wife miscarried what would have been their second child. The Griegs would not have any more children.

Grieg's publisher asked him for another piano concerto for years, but the composer simply couldn't write one. All that he wrote was a fragment about 150 measures in length.

A new album from pianist Mark Bebbington presents Grieg's famous A minor Piano Concerto as well as the world premiere of Robert Matthew-Walker's reconstruction of the B minor piano concerto fragment.

The Grieg concerto and concerto fragment are paired with a piano concerto by the English composer Frederick Delius. Grieg befriended the young Delius in the 1880s, and they remained close until Grieg's death in 1907.

Dr. Amanda Sewell is IPR's music director.