 As a student , Grainger had learned to appreciate the music of Grieg , and came to regard the Norwegian as a paragon of Nordic beauty and greatness . Grieg in turn described Grainger as a new way forward for English composition , " quite different from Elgar , very original " . After a lifetime interpreting Grieg 's works , in 1944 Grainger began adapting the Norwegian 's E minor Piano Sonata , Op. 7 as a " Grieg @-@ Grainger Symphony " , but abandoned the project after writing 16 bars of music . By this time , Grainger acknowledged that he had not fulfilled Grieg 's high expectations of him , either as a composer or as a pianist . He also reflected on whether it would have been better , from the point of view of his development as a composer , had he never met the Griegs , " sweet and dear though they were to me " . 
