Warsaw

Grieg first appeared in Warsaw during the inaugural season of the Warsaw Philharmonic, on its twenty-third Philharmonic Soirée, on 22 April 1902. Grieg’s correspondence includes letters attesting that the management of the new Warsaw Philharmonic had sought to bring the composer to Warsaw for a concert of his own works from the beginning of September 1901 (his correspondence in German with Emil Młynarski and Aleksander Rajchman dates from 1901–1905).

Grieg next came to Warsaw for monographic concerts on 14 and 15 April 1903, in which he accompanied the Swedish singer from Helsinki Ida Ekman, because – as he replied to an earlier proposition that he perform with Nina – his wife, although accompanying him on his concert tours, had not performed publicly abroad for years.

The Echo Muzyczne of 27 March 1903 published the programme of the first concert and an article about the composer, as well as the words to two of his songs, ‘Before a Southern Convent’, Op. 20 and ‘Land Sighting’, Op. 31.