Grieg – Two Elegiac Melodies op.34

During the course of his life, Grieg had several unproductive periods due to a chronic illness.
The year 1880 marked the end of one of such periods, and the inspiration came from poet Aasmund Olafsson Vinje, a proud romantic Norwegian nationalist.

Grieg, whose sentiments perfectly aligned with Vinje's, chose 12 poems to set to music as a song cycle. From those 12, Grieg transcribed two of them for string orchestra: Hjertesår (The Wounded Heart), and Våren (The Last Spring).