September 29, 2019

Norway – Famous Norwegian Composer, Edvard Grieg Lunch Concert

Edvard Grieg is Norway’s greatest composer, whose work still influences musicians and composers. To celebrate such an important figure in Norwegian history, I went to a Grieg lunch concert and toured his home. It was a lovely experience to listen to his work to come to life at the hands of a professional pianist. Not only is the concert phenomenal, but the location is also stunning! You get to see the shimmering sea/lake during the concert and from the composer’s writing hut. I also recommend you stay for a tour of the composer’s villa for a look into who Greg was as a person. Here’s how I experienced it.

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The Grieg Museum: Troldhaugen

The Troldhagen seems to be an umbrella name for all of the buildings on the property pertaining to Edvard Greig: a Museum, Concert Hall, his personal villa, composer’s hut, and final resting place. About 20 minutes outside Bergen, we drove to the Trouldhagen and utilized the parking lot. If coming from Bergen, you can purchase a package that includes transportation and the lunch concert from the Tourist Information. No matter how you get there, you will need to walk through a neighborhood to get to Troldhaugen. It is fascinating to see all the very nice family homes surrounding the Grieg Museum.

You’ll pick up your tickets from the Museum, where there is an exhibition of Edvard Greig’s life. The modern building has a lovely little dining area, which we enjoyed immediately upon arriving. Hey, it’s called a lunch concert, so we did need to eat at some point – lol! We also got to look through the museum exhibition, walk around the villa and down to the composer’s hut before the concert hall doors opened up.

My favorite building was the composer’s hut, which is a tiny little hut near the level of the water. Inside is exactly what Grieg would need to do his composing: a writing desk, fireplace, beautiful views, seclusion, and a couch for napping. The windows facing the water make the hut a dreamy space that would definitely cost over $150/night on Airbnb. Before we knew it, it was time for the lunch concert.

At a Glance:

Rating: 4 (out of 4) stars – would do it again in a heartbeat!
Intensity: Cute warm layers
Location: South of Bergen by about 15 minutes
Cost: 290 NOK for the concert, which includes the museum and tour of the home, 390 NOK with bus
Restrooms: Inside the Museum building, I cannot remember if there were some in the concert hall area
Timing: 2-3 hours (45 minutes for the concert, 30 minutes for the tour)

Highlights:

Watching a professional pianist with the waters of the lake behind make the works by Edvard Grieg come to life
Feeling fancy and cultured while in Bergen
Walking around the property is stunning

Hanna holding two tickets to the Grieg lunch concert with an image of Edvard Greig on them inside the concert hall. In the background is the piano and window with a view to the lake beyond.

Hanna standing in front of the Victorian home of Edvard Grieg, Norway's greatest composer with cloudy skies above.

The interior of the Grieg Lunch Concert hall. After the performance, the seats and piano were empty, but you can see the view beyond and the red composer's hut through the window.

Hanna standing in the walkway down to Edvard Greig's composer's hut at Trouldhaugen. The hut has beautiful views of the water and surrounding nature, perfect for Norway's mos famous composer.

Sticker for the Edvard Grieg Museum - Trouldhaugen on my grey sweater. See if you can spot the sticker in my other photos.

Hanna standing next to the piano after the Edvard Greig Lunch Concert. Once the concert is over, you can take a photo with the piano as long as you do not touch it!

Grieg Lunch Concert

The concert hall is a modern design and built into the hillside. It features light wood and white paint. The windows behind the presumably permanent piano face the composer’s hut and the water beyond. For being a random Wednesday in September, the concert hall was surprisingly full – I would say about 60 – 75% full. Don’t be shy, head straight for the front couple rows (why not?) and sit on the left side of the room (when facing the stage) so you can see the pianist’s hands at work.

A staff member of the Grieg Museum initially comes on stage to ask everyone to not take photos and to introduce the performer of the day. We had a local Bergan musician, who has played at Troldhaugen many times. The lunchtime musician rotates, depending on who is in town. The musician gave us an overview of all the pieces he would be playing that day with a few bits of information on the pieces. He then sat down in a flourish and began to play.

Thanks to the modern Norwegian acoustics, the piano music FILLED the room immediately. Some pieces light and airy, others darker with heavier tones, but each very different than the last. As the musician played, the clouds cleared and sunlight began to shimmer off the water behind. The melodies were complex and a bit unexpected. Though I had never heard of Edvard Grieg in my own life, I could see why the composer became famous. It was a delightfully unpredictable experience. I believe that anyone who has a remote interest in classical music would enjoy the Grieg lunch concert.

Our tour guide gives us an overview of the Greig family home living room, which includes, of course, a piano.

After the lunch concert, you can join a tour of the Grieg family home, which has sketches and drawings of Edvard Grieg in the room that used to be the kitchen.

A statue of Norwegian composer Edvard Greig stands outside the concert hall. He is holding his lapel in his typical pose.

Hanna holding her hand to the top of the measuring stick, which shows the height of Edvard Greig at Trouldhagen. Hanna is a good foot taller than Edvard Grieg.

The piano in the Greig Museum Concert Hall with view of the lake, trees, and clouds beyond.

Hanna standing in the doorway of the red composer's hut at the Edvard Greig Museum in Norway. Inside the window you can see the desk where Edvard worked on his classical music pieces.

The Tour of Edvard Grieg’s Home

The Grieg lunch concert was about 35 – 40 minutes with an encore, which was perfect to leave me wanting just a bit more. Now that I had heard the music performed first-hand, I was even more curious to learn about the composer’s life. Luckily there was an English tour of Edvard Grieg’s villa within 15 minutes of the concert ending. We hopped on the tour from the Museum and got to walk through the preserved home.

The tour was only on the first floor, but it allowed us to learn more about Edvard and his wife Nina’s life as a person. Quite petite, Edvard had only one working lung. To compensate for this, he would stand closer than his friends in photos and hold his jacket by the collar on one side. See if you can spot this in the photos when you visit. The home itself is well-preserved with as many items in its original location as possible. Our guide told us many great tidbits about the furniture and items the home – so many of the fancy items were gifts from other famous people at the time. It is incredible that Edvard received success in his lifetime, which is sometimes rare with great composers.

With a deep appreciation for nature, Edvard built the home to have nature views from every room with high ceilings and large windows. However, due to the large windows and high ceilings, the house was extremely difficult to keep warm. For this reason, Edvard and Nina only spent one winter in the home… after that, they decided to spend their winters touring Europe and enjoying a more mild climate! Visitors are not allowed to go upstairs, which was one of Nina’s wishes when she passed away. Edvard and Nina had no surviving children.

Other Points of Interest

Although I mentioned it earlier in this post, the Museum itself has a great overview of Grieg’s life and career. Inside the Museum you can see Edvard’s lucky animals, which he had on him during every single performance. Though the exhibit was extremely well put-together, I loved the tour of the home. Perhaps it was the experience factor of concert and home tour, or perhaps I was simply at the point of traveling that I have less patience to read wall plaques and would rather someone tell me about it. Either way, the museum was fun to revisit after hearing the concert and the tour to kind of put everything together one last time.

Beyond the museum, concert hall, villa, and composer’s hut, there is one more item of interest: the final resting place of Nina and Edvard Grieg. You have to make your way down the other side of the hill down to the water. Up on the hill, you can see a bit of concrete that reads “Nina Edvard” or something like that. Apparently, Edvard very purposely picked this spot as it is the last point on the property that the light hits at sunset. It is also a gorgeous spot to walk out onto a concrete pier into the water of the sea (?) or lake (?) that surrounds the property.

Hanna grabbing a cup of coffee to take a sip in the lunch area of Trouldhaugen near Bergen, Norway.

Hanna standing in the doorway of the red composer's hut at the Edvard Greig Museum in Norway, which is also called Trouldhaugen.

Hanna looking back at the Victorian home of Edvard Grieg, Norway's greatest composer with cloudy skies above.

Hanna sitting on a bench and looking over her shoulder at the camera. In the background is a lake with tree-filled islands.

Near the final resting place of Nina and Edvard Grieg, there is a short concrete pier that you can visit at Trouldhaugen.

WHAT TO PACK TO FOR A GREIG MUSEUM LUNCH CONCERT

While you don’t have to dress up at all, and it’s definitely not as fancy as seeing a ballet at the Olso Opera House, I wanted to dress up a little bit. I wore a corduroy skirt, high socks, a turtleneck sweater, and additional layers. The weather in Norway is variable, especially so in autumn. I ended up bringing many light layers so I could adjust to the various weather conditions. Here are a few items that came in handy:

Rain Jacket — while I didn’t wear this during our visit, it was in the car in case it started raining.
Puffy mid-layer that packs up small like the Patagonia nano-puff jacket. Or, for something a little more casual looking, I’m trying out the Patagonia pack-in jacket. The wouldn’t recommend the maroon jacket I’m wearing in some of the photos because it didn’t block the wind very well, and I was chilly!
Wool layering long sleeve, like this one from Smartwool. Or consider a tank top to wear UNDER your cute sweaters for extra warmth.
Corduroy Skirt — Here’s one at J.Crew Factory.
Grey Knit Turtleneck — Here’s one at H&M, or check this one at Kuhl.
Extra large scarf or scarves! H&M typically has some cute chunky scarves each fall.
Boots that you can comfortably walk in, but also keep your feet warm. The ones you see in the photos look good but were not warm enough! Consider some cute but functional boots from Clarks or Sorel.
A handy dandy refillable water bottle is ALWAYS a good thing to bring with you.

Full Transparency

My mother and I received complimentary tickets to the lunch concert at Troldhaugen, and I wanted to talk for a minute about how that would affect our experience of the Grieg lunch concert. When looking for things to do in Bergen, we both wanted to hear the music firsthand. We could have also seen one of their evening concerts, but due to time limitations and limited access to a car, we decided to see the lunch concert as we came into Bergen from the Hardangerfjord area. This timing was ideal to grab lunch in the cafeteria (we paid for lunch) and explore before the concert.

If you were to purchase tickets to the concert, you would likely have the same experience that I did, except with possibly a different musician and weather. The concert happens every day at 1:00 pm, but they have a slightly different setup for the holiday season. Be sure to check the website first to see what concerts Troldhaugen is offering.

Overall Thoughts: Grieg Lunch Concert & Tour

The Grieg lunch concert was so much more than just the concert. Due to the thorough museum, villa, and composer’s hut, I felt like I got to know so much more about Edvard Grieg beyond his music. Then the concert itself was the best way I could possibly imagine to experience his work. Although I could have looked it up on YouTube (which I kinda did), it is 10 to 20 times better to hear it live. It was also special to look out at the composer’s hut while the music was playing, which is likely where the pieces were created. Overall, a simply wonderful experience.

Other things to do in Bergen:

Mostraumen Cruise
Sights of Bergen
And check out all my Norway blog posts here.

Where else have you been to a concert like this? Like in a small venue that is significant to the musician or composer. Seeing the Mozart concert in Salzburg Austria is probably the other location that I can think of. Let me know in the comments below where you recommend going!