Apocalyptica - Hall of the Mountain King

[ellyssian]

I've played a handful of Apocalyptica - two covering Metallica, one of an original tune - and the set has almost run its course. Thanks to nin_man I poked around a bit and I've got two more that will take us through the weekend, but this was my original planned ending of the set.

I find it funny that - if not in this case, it was a similar piece - fans of Apocalyptica refer to this as a "cover" of Edvard Grieg. Classical music is, more often than not, composed by one person and performed by completely unrelated parties. It's not the same mentality as involved in a rock band performing a tune written by another band. It's the normal state of affairs. Indeed, when one looks at a composer performing their own works, it can be given a similar negative stigma that a cover band might receive.

This tune in particular has graced many a metal band's performance - if not played by them, such as Savatage's arrangement of the tune into Prelude to Madness as an introduction to the title track of their album Hall of the Mountain King (Amazon.com), it is piped in as an opening number.

The piece - most well known for its appearance in an orchestral suite - is part of a broad orchestral, choral, and operatic vocal work of incidental music for the play Peer Gynt.

Without further ado, here is one of aequitaslevitas's favorite pieces to play, Edvard Grieg's Hall of the Mountain King, as performed live by Apocalyptica:

They released Hall of the Mountain King on their studio album Cult (Amazon.com).