‘I can’t in all conscience journey to Paris,’ he wrote. ‘Like every other particular person who is just not a member of the French nation, I’m shocked by the disgusting method by which your compatriots deal with each the legislation and justice, and my disgust is so nice that I’ve no want to seem earlier than a French viewers.’ What had so piqued Grieg’s ire that he discovered himself unable to simply accept Colonne’s prestigious invitation?

What was the Dreyfus affair?

The reply lies in an occasion which occurred three days earlier, when the French military officer Alfred Dreyfus was discovered responsible of treason for a second time – at his first court-martial 4 years beforehand, he was convicted for allegedly passing intelligence paperwork to the Germans.

Grieg was not alone to find the case in opposition to Dreyfus hopelessly unconvincing. Outraged, the novelist Émile Zola penned ‘J’accuse’, an open letter accusing the army authorities of corruption and distorting proof. Public opinion swayed in Dreyfus’s favour, though a virulent pressure of anti-Semitism was additionally evident, not least among the many army institution.

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How did Grieg’s stance on the Dreyfus affair have an effect on him?

Grieg’s gesture of solidarity with Dreyfus would possibly simply have gone just about unnoticed had he not authorised the publication of his letter to Colonne in a Frankfurt newspaper.

There, the phrases of the eminent Norwegian composer stirred each approval from the pro-Dreyfus factions and bitter opposition from those that supported the treason verdict. Hate mail, together with loss of life threats, rained in Grieg’s course, and his controversial letter led to splits with associates and a string of cancelled live performance engagements.

Colonne himself was none too happy that Grieg’s letter had been printed and that his orchestra had been related to the continuing Dreyfus furore. However he admired Grieg’s music immensely and three years later invited him again to Paris to carry out it. Grieg wished to simply accept, however fearful concerning the ongoing vitriol his Dreyfus stance was attracting. Colonne was reassuring. ‘The storm has handed,’ he commented.

Sadly it hadn’t, as Grieg found when he arrived in Paris for his live performance in April 1903. Dreyfus was by then a free man, having accepted a presidential pardon per week after his second trial. However reminiscences of ‘l’affaire Dreyfus’ had been nonetheless uncooked within the French capital, with controversies round it persevering with to rage. A police escort was wanted for Grieg and his spouse to make the carriage trip from their resort to the live performance venue, the place a milling crowd supplied a primarily heat welcome.

Boos and catcalls might be heard, nonetheless, because the composer got here on stage to conduct the live performance. Grieg stood silently by as police contained in the corridor forcibly ejected the agitators, after which took up his baton. ‘I energetically signalled the orchestra to open up with a fortissimo,’ he later reported, ‘and from that second on I used to be in full management.’

Grieg was, although, shaken by the extent of private animosity he encountered whereas in Paris. The joyful celebrations which greeted his return to Norway, marking his sixtieth birthday, little question helped to re-establish a way of private well-being and belonging. However a scar remained – within the 4 years that had been left till his loss of life in 1907, he didn’t return to Paris once more.

Primary picture © Getty Photographs