28 March 2026

Scoring: 2.2.2 (in A).2-4.0.0.0-strings

Duration: c. 12 minutes

Availability of performing materials: 

1. https://imslp.org/wiki/Scherzo_for_Orchestra_(Backer-Gr%C3%B8ndahl%2C_Agathe)
2. https://www.harrogatephilharmonicorchestra.org.uk/hire-library-women-composers​

I first heard Agathe Backer Grøndahl’s (1847-1907) music in the context of a BBC Radio 3 programme about fellow Norwegian composer Ole Bull (1810-1880) with whom Backer Grøndahl toured as a violin and piano duo.  It was Bull who recommended Backer Grøndahl to Hans von Bülow and she subsequently studied with him in Florence. Following her piano debut in Leipzig, she became a pupil of Franz Liszt. She was, apparently, a consummate pianist gaining accolades for her Beethoven performances from George Bernard Shaw and others. She was a noted interpreter of Grieg’s Piano Concerto with whom she was a close friend and colleague. Her compositional output is predominantly written for solo piano, or voice and piano but on IMSLP lists the Scherzo for Orchestra. The only recording I could find was an outdoor performance by the Brazilian Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado do Espírito Santo on YouTube.

The instrumentation largely matches that of Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suites which I was programming with Chester Sinfonia so I decided to introduce Backer Grøndahl’s Scherzo too.  Score and parts are freely available on IMSLP although I’ve since noticed that Harrogate Philharmonic also offer printed parts for hire.

The Scherzo is, as its name suggests, a playful piece. It is in ternary form with lively outer sections in E major sandwiching a more lyrical middle section in G major.  

The outer sections are written out in 2/4 which creates quite a lot of semi- and demi-semi- notation. My inclination at first was to try to beat these sections in four quavers per bar and whilst this helped with the first couple of read throughs it became obvious that in order to maintain the playful character of the music it needed to be felt as two crotchets per bar.

The most demanding parts of the piece are the transitions:

bb.29-31: has fistfuls of accidentals including double sharps in the woodwind and then a staccato E major arpeggio that takes the violin 1s up to G#6;

bb.41-48: sees woodwind solos modulating to B major and requires confident players;

bb.89-98: features short, imitative, chromatic exchanges in the woodwinds, including a solo for bassoon 2, are not for the faint-hearted;

bb.169-180: is a rather lovely wind cadenza featuring clarinets 1 & 2.

Each of these passages returns transposed in the closing section so require further attention.

The coda reintroduces the gurgling triplet motives of the middle section and leads to a calm, affecting close.

The players found the piece a bit of a challenge. The combination of home key, notation, high tessitura in the violin 1 section and tricky, imitative solo passages in the woodwind kept us on our toes. We felt that if Backer Grøndahl had written the whole piece down a tone it might have all been a little easier to learn! We persevered however and can recommend it as a lively, characterful work which has a lighter tone than Grieg’s folk leaning works.