Edvard Grieg

In the Hall of the Mountain King

This is perhaps Grieg's most famous composition, and comes from the first Peer Gynt suite. It was originally a piece of incidental music to accompany the scene in Ibsen's play where Peer ventures into the Mountain King's hall, finding himself surrounded by trolls, gnomes and goblins chanting 'slay him!'. It starts with a slow and sinister melody that repeats, while getting faster and faster, and this arrangement gives the contrabass, bass and alto clarinets a chance to shine. It is also famous as the music from the Alton Towers adverts!