Haugtussa Song Cycle sung by Astra Desmond (contralto)
(accompanist, Gerald Moore )
Grieg wrote many of his best songs on texts in Landsmaal, the literary language of Norway based on Old Norse, which was revived in the nineteenth century and adopted by the Norwegian nationalist poets. Chief among them was Arne Garborg, whose volume of poems ' Haugtussa ' (' The Troll Maiden ') made an instantaneous appeal to Grieg's sense of fantasy and his gift for suggesting in music the Norwegian scene.
Astra Desmond, who sings the song cycle in the original Landsmaal, has made a special study of Grieg's songs.