Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg is known to musicians and audiences around the world for famous works in the repertoire like the Piano Concerto, Peer Gynt, and many others. Today, however, we go into his lesser known catalog of works (many of which never had opus numbers assigned) and look at his Intermezzo for Cello & Piano, EG115.

This beautiful romantic work shows off the singing capabilities of the cello in all its glory. Grieg utilizes the full range of the cello, from the thick sound of the open C string to the clarion sounds of the upper registers. The slow pace of the work gives the cellist time to truly bring out the remarkable features of their instrument, with numerous challenges that can be more easily mastered at this pace.

Opening with a slow ascending four note motive in the piano, the cello quickly takes this figure and makes it the basis of the opening lyrical melody, in harmony with the piano. A second melodic line, with grace note ornamentations in the piano and sixteenth figures comes quickly, before the exposition repeats.

As Grieg moves to develop the ideas, he quickly takes us to new and dramatic territory, with great dynamic variations and the movement to triplets in the cello, exploring the full range of the instrument through arpeggiated chords, but still giving us hints of the initial four note motive that the piano began with.

As the cello builds to a high harmonic E, the piano begins a false recapitulation in the left hand, repeating the opening motive, before the right hand takes over with a modified version of the motive, this time including sixteenth notes in both the piano and cello.  A quiet pianissimo coda by the piano, echoed by the cello brings the work to a close.

While rarely played, this beautiful work has been recorded a few times:
Andreas Branteleid
Adrien Frasse-Sombet
Anthony Arnone