32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful Music and Cinematography, September 7, 2000
This review is from: Song of Norway [VHS] (VHS Tape)
While the cinematography and the musical numbers in this film are five-star, don't come to it expecting a definitive or even a particularly accurate film biography of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.
Norway is one of the most beautiful countries I have ever visited, and this film captures that beauty. The dancing is beautiful, and the music is enjoyable, even though some liberties have been taken with Grieg's compositions to render them singable.
Don't expect this film to be more than it is, and it can be a most pleasant experience.
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29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Song of Norway, February 18, 2002
This review is from: Song of Norway [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I was in my early 20's when this film came out. It was shown in 70mm 6 channel real stere sound (before dolby!) and it played at the Cinerama Theatre in Hartford Connecticut. Three months later i went to Norway and followed the footsteps of all the actors in this great motion picture. I have visited Norway several times since this film and the wonderful music of Edvard Grieg plays thru my head on each visit. Corney or not, its a great piece of work and it would be nice to get down to basics again in this new century. I only wish this would come out on DVD and in letterbox. I'll never be able to say enough great things about this classic.
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Grieg's Music a Landmark for Norway, October 18, 2004
This review is from: Song of Norway [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I first watched this movie just after its release at a movie theater in Boston in 1970 and saw it again aboard an SAS flight from Copenhagen to New York in January 1972. I was impressed with the scenery of the old country. Many of these places I have visited as a youth and as an adult. Edvard Grieg's music describes the love and adoration he had for his country. Listening to his music I can picture in my mind the beauty of Norway's picturesque, breathtaking landscape; i.e. fjords, forests, waterfalls and mountains.
Toralv Maurstad plays the famous Norwegian composer, struggling to gain fame and fortune through his music. While many of his countrymen thought of him as a failure, he gained the respect of the famous Norwegian poet, playwright and dramatist Henrik Ibsen who, his home was in the town of Grimstad where my paternal family came from, asks Grieg to compose music for his play "Peer Gynt" that has become one of the best known musical scores in the world today: "Peer Gynt Suite I" Op. 46, and "Peer Gynt Suite II" Op. 55, each with four movements. The opening theme "Morning Mood" and the third movement "Anitra's Dance" are the most popular themes.
Another Norwegian, Richard Nordraak, who wrote Norway's national anthem "Ja Vi Elsker Dette Landet" (Yes We Love This Land), becomes a close friend of Grieg by exposing his music and pulling a few strings with well-known people such as Hans Christian Andersen. Florence Henderson certainly was the perfect choice as Grieg's cousin and wife, Nina, with her beautiful singing voice and talent.
While many still criticize Grieg's works, there are many more who admire this great composer's love for Norway reflected through his numerous Small Piano Pieces, his famous "Piano Concerto in A minor" Op. 16, and "In Autumn" Op. 11. Grieg's music will always live on in the minds of children and adults of all ages.
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