Hotel Westminster

This building was erected in 1897 on the site of the former Grosch tenement, from which it originally took its name. The upper floors were occupied by a hotel. Grieg stayed here when visiting Oslo during the last years of his life. It was here, in the autumn of 1906, that he finished his last work, the psalm ‘How fair Thou art’. The first three of the Four Psalms, Op. 74 were written in the summer of that year in Troldhaugen. The composer placed his last work at the beginning of the cycle, with the number one. This cycle attests Grieg’s exceptional mastery in the use of folk melodies, his brilliant skill in rendering their melodic, harmonic and rhythmic features in art music.