Agathe Ursula Backer Grøndahl was a Norwegian pianist and composer. In 1875 she married conductor and singing teacher Olaus Andreas Grøndahl and later she was generally known as Agathe Backer Grøndahl. Also her son Fridtjof Backer-Grøndahl (1885-1959) was a pianist and composer and promoted her mother's compositions in her concerts.
Agathe Ursula Backer was born in Holmestrand in 1847, into a wealthy and art-loving family, the second of four sisters, all gifted for drawing and music. In 1857 she moved with her family to Christiania, where she studied with Otto Winther-Hjelm, Halfdan Kjerulf and Ludvig Mathias Lindeman. Between 1865 and 1867 she became the pupil of Theodor Kullak and she studied composition with Richard Wuerst at the Akademie der Tonkunst in Berlin, where she lived with her sister Harriet Backer. There she gained fame with her interpretation of her in Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto. In 1868 she made her debut with Edvard Grieg, at the age of 26, as director of the Philharmonic Society. A recommendation from Ole Bull led to further studies with Hans von Bülow in Florence in 1871. Later in the same year he played at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, becoming a pupil of Franz Liszt in Weimar in 1873. In 1875 he married the famous singing teacher Herr Grondahl of Christiania and during the second half of the 1770s built an exceptional career as a pianist with a series of concerts in the Nordic countries, playing with great success also in London and Paris.
In 1889 and 1890 she gave concerts in London and Birmingham with a wide-ranging program, including Grieg's Piano Concerto. She was later proclaimed one of the greatest piano artists of the century by George Bernard Shaw, who also emphasized the sensitivity, symmetry and artistic economy of her compositions. At the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889 she repeated her success with her brilliant interpretation of Grieg's piano concerto. It was then that she began to suffer from nervous problems, although she eventually resumed her artistic career as a pianist. Later in 1890 she became almost completely deaf. She gave her her last concerts in Sweden and Finland in the fall of 1901. she Then she retired to teach.
She died in her home in Ormøya outside Christiania at the age of 59. Today she is remembered mainly for her songs and piano pieces.
Opus 20 Suite (1887)
This may or may not be a response to Grieg's Holberg Suite - such suites were in vogue at the time and this one is in many ways very different from Grieg's. However, it opens with a BIG prelude.
1. Prelude. Cheerful not too much and very resolute. G minor. This opens with a grand leap followed by running sixteenth note passages, a pattern repeating itself over and over in various keys until the sixteenth-note figuration becomes continuous and the leap introduces counter-melodic phrases, which combine with the figuration in a huge extended climax. After a brief recap, the music relaxes and closes appropriately in a series of jumps.
2. Night. Simple Allegretto. There is nothing ancient about this; in fact it is not even Chopinesque but a modern nocturnal with a fluid delicacy that suggests a watery environment. The exhibition has no basses to speak of and ends with increasing chromatic transitions. A bass melody then enters briefly only to become an ostinato bass for six bars before reaching the return of the opening. The chromatic section is here replaced by the development in new shades before a very quiet and peaceful tail.
3. Gavotta. Allegretto. The main section is in ternary form with a tail. There are no repeats and the main feature is the high spins which interrupt the theme. The trio is very pleasant, having a very graceful melody with syncopated phrases openings; the second section is repeated and contains an ascending chromatic passage which reflects that of the Nocturne.
4. Menuet. Calm. This returns to the usual rep pattern (apart from the first section of the trio). The sliding theme starts off notably on the pacing rather than the upbeat. Again there is a very strong minor trio, which includes a nice highlight section.
5. Scherzo. Allegretto playful. G minor. This is a light staccato joke, reminiscent of Kirchner. Again it is ternary form. The closing is quiet in the first round but noisy in the conclusion. However, it shouldn't be taken too quickly as the trio is scored at the same time and cannot be rushed. This trio is an original feat - at least I don't know anything like it. It starts very slowly and has the feel of a little folk dance but its scope is expanding. It gets louder and the soft pedal is left behind; concordance begins to disappear and the regular rhythm is interrupted; the dissonances intensify and the volume rises to fff only to be suddenly interrupted. A soft rendering on an ostinato bass accumulates once again in a very marked tone, before declining chromatically until it breaks down indecisively; a pianissimo coda closes. Such a conception deserves attention for its originality, not to mention its compelling dynamism.
