Another tribute to Edvard Grieg on his birthday: Duke Ellington’s take on “Peer Gynt.” When the album came out in 1960, the Grieg Foundation was not flattered. The president of the organization found the arrangements to be ugly and uninspired and felt that Ellington and Billy Strayhorn had made Solveig “bray like a sow.” Critics in America, at best, expressed confusion. While conceding that the undertaking was a serious one, the results were deemed “grotesque” and even “contemptible.” The classical people weren’t happy. The jazz people weren’t happy. In the process, some reached past the Duke to take a slap at Grieg for his “lightweight” originals. Ouch! Tough crowd!
More about it here:
Fiedler conducting the original suites: