Edvard Grieg Alexander Greig, travelled widely, settling in Norway about 1770, and establishing business interests in Bergen. Edvard Grieg was raised in a musical family. His mother was his first piano teacher and taught him to play at the age of six. Grieg studied in several schools, including Tanks Upper Secondary School. In the summer of 1858, Grieg met the eminent Norwegian violinist Ole Bull, who was a family friend; Bull's brother was married to Grieg's aunt. Bull recognized the 15-year-old boy's talent and persuaded his parents to send him to the Leipzig Conservatory, the piano department of which was directed by
Haugtussa (Grieg) the piano. From verse to verse, Grieg gradually changes this passage using different harmonizations. The first to perform the complete cycle of songs in Cristiania was Eva Nansen, wife of the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen, with Grieg's colleague and friend Agathe Backer-Grøndahl at the piano, on 2 November 1899. Grieg was not present at the recital, for he had a concert in Stockholm at the same time. Four of the "Haugtussa" songs were also performed on 22 October 1898 by the Norwegian-born Swedish singer Dagmar Möller, to whom the cycle was dedicated. Haugtussa (Grieg) Haugtussa, Op. 67, or "The Mountain