Welcome to the Ether Game Weekly Podcast! This week, we are NOT going to ford every stream nor follow every rainbow, but instead, Ether Game is grabbing our hiking gear to "Climb Every Mountain"! Be prepared to hear some mountainous musical moments this week. To get you started (or for those of you who just cannot wait for Tuesday nights), you can sharpen your skills with our podcast selection. Remember to keep your ears out for a portion of Tuesday night's Teaser selection. And don't forget to tune into the full show on Tuesday, January 31st at 8:00pm for a chance to win a prize!

Edvard Grieg (1843–1907): PEER GYNT: In The Hall Of The Mountain King

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra; Neeme Järvi, conductor. Mad About Classics (Deutsche Grammophon)

When the great Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen first approached Edvard Grieg in 1874 with a request to provide incidental music to his play Peer Gynt, the young composer readily accepted. However, Grieg soon discovered that the story was quite unmanageable musically, and his work progressed slowly, taking the young composer over a year and a half to finish the score. A sprawling satirical fantasy, Peer Gynt follows a young ne'er-do-well named Peer as he lies, cheats, and steals his way around the world. In the first act, we find Peer in the mountain lair of the King of the Trolls, who is attempting to persuade peer to marry his daughter. At first Peer agrees, but in the end he denounces the trolls and escapes. Apparently, even though he was a king, having a troll for a father-in-law was just too much to bear.