Piano Concerto (Grieg) - Popular Culture References

Popular Culture References

The enduring popularity of Grieg's Piano Concerto has ensured its use in a wide variety of contexts.

• The Concerto was featured in the film The Seventh Veil (1945) as the piece played by the young concert pianist (Ann Todd; the uncredited pianist was Eileen Joyce).
• It was famously parodied in Franz Reizenstein's Concerto Popolare of 1959 (written for Gerard Hoffnung's music festival).
• The opening theme of the first movement was used in the song "Asia Minor", a top-ten pop hit from 1961. The title of the song was also based on the key of the concerto, A minor.
• Excerpts from the first movement are incorporated into the number "Rosemary", in the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961).
• The concerto was used in a sketch by the British comedians Morecambe and Wise in their 1971 Christmas show. Conducted by André Previn, with Eric Morecambe as soloist, Morecambe claims he is playing "all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order". In fact, he was playing a simplified version of the correct music, but in a completely inappropriate style.
• It is also featured in the 1980s series Beauty and the Beast in the first season's finale entitled "A Happy Life".
• Parts of it were also used in the movie The Adventures of Milo and Otis (1986).
• The first movement is used in Adrian Lyne's 1997 film Lolita.
• In 2004, it was featured in a Nike commercial.
• The second movement was used in a series of British 'Bisto Aah Nights' adverts (released August 2006), in which many people vowed to stay home more often for family dinners.
• The opening piano piece in the first movement is featured in a 2008 Range Rover commercial.
• The first movement was used in David Lynch and Mark Frost's cult TV show Twin Peaks season 2; episode 21.
• The first movement was used by composer Mark Snow in The X-Files episode Salvage.
• Crossover pianist Maksim Mrvica plays a modernised version in his album The Piano Player.
• The comedian Bill Bailey is a skilled musician, and has used Grieg's piano concerto for comic effect; in the TV Series Black Books it is played by his character Manny Bianco, and it is cited as an example in his solo mock-scholarly sketch on cockney music.
• The first five bars are played by pianist Hyung-Ki Joo in one of "A Little Nightmare Music's" skits.