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Schoenberg: Gurre-Lieder / Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic

Chandos

Available as SACD

$43.99

Oct 28, 2016

Recorded live on SACD in the sumptuous acoustic of Grieghallen in Bergen, this mind-blowing interpretation of Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder involves 350 performers: large choral forces, six exceptional soloists, and the legendary Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra- extended for the occasion- all conducted by Edward Gardner. Marking the pinnacle of the Orchestra’s 250th anniversary celebrations, the same forces offered two evening concerts that met with unanimous acclaim in the press, including a five-star review from The Daily Telegraph praising the ‘sweep of Gardner’s conducting, by turns luminous and incisive.’ It added, ‘He unleashed the piece’s volcanic passions while never becoming mired in its high-calorific density, and somehow avoided drowning the singers’, and also congratulated the ‘heroic’ Stuart Skelton, ‘warm’ Alwyn Mellor, ‘ethereal’ Anna Larsson, and ‘powerful’ Thomas Allen.

Schoenberg: Gurre-Lieder / Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic

$43.99
SACD

Chandos

Oct 28, 2016

CHSA 5172(2)

Berlioz: Grande Messe des Morts, Op. 5 / Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic

Chandos

Available as SACD

~~$21.99~~ $16.99

Oct 05, 2018

With this surround-sound recording of Berlioz’s Requiem, Edward Gardner and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra tackle the infinite and the immeasurable.

All the grandiose, striking beauty of the Requiem’s large-scale ceremonial is encapsulated by first-class vocal and orchestral forces, fully utilising the spatial possibilities of Grieghallen in Bergen. The matching of space and sonority was one of Berlioz’s lasting obsessions, one experience in St Paul’s Cathedral in London throwing Berlioz into a delirium of emotion from which he took days to recover. His Grande Messe des morts, notorious for its requirement of four brass bands in addition to a large orchestra and chorus, taken here from live concerts, has often been seen as one of the most emotionally powerful works of its kind.

Setting a solemn and austere, even ascetic text, the music is not that of an orthodox believer but of a visionary, inspired by the dramatic implications of death and judgement.

On Sale

Berlioz: Grande Messe des Morts, Op. 5 / Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic

~~$21.99~~ $16.99
SACD

Chandos

Oct 05, 2018

CHSA 5219

Nielsen: Violin Concerto; Symphony No. 4 / Ehnes, Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic

Chandos

Available as SACD

~~$21.99~~ $16.99

May 12, 2023

Nielsen’s epic Violin Concerto was premiered in Copenhagen in February 1912, by violinist Peder Møller. Nominally the work is set in two movements; both open with a slow section and move to a faster one. Whilst unusual, this could be seen as a more usual fast – slow – fast three movement form, but with an extensive slow introduction to the first movement. The music moves quickly from one idea to the next, and overall has a bold, playful and optimistic feel. In stark contrast, although written only a few years later, the fourth symphony is more cohesive and unified as a work.

Written against the background of the first world war, the work is a celebration of life itself. Just before the premier in 1916, Nielsen described it as: ‘Music is Life, and, like it, inextinguishable.’ Composed in the usual four movement form, each movement continues from the last without a break. The final movement features two sets of timpani battling each other across the orchestra. The recording was made in Bergen’s Grieghallen, in Surround Sound, and is available as a hybrid SACD and in Spatial Audio.

REVIEWS:

Nielsen's Violin Concerto couldn’t have a better advocate than James Ehnes: strong in his lyricism when he needs to be, alert to all dynamics and a sense of fantasy which is outstanding in the two cadenzas.

-- BBC Music Magazine

James Ehnes – that most elegant and unflashy of players – seems to relish all that is unexpected about the piece...Edward Gardner and the Bergen Philharmonic give it real backbone and play like its greatest champions.

-- Gramophone

In Nielsen's Fourth Symphony, Gardner succeeds handily. The orchestra plays outstandingly well for him in all departments and he keeps the symphony moving. This is appropriate because all the movements are connected. I found his slightly quicker tempo for the second movement convincing with the woodwinds as delectable as one would expect and the dynamics quieter than in some recordings.

-- MusicWeb International

On Sale

Nielsen: Violin Concerto; Symphony No. 4 / Ehnes, Gardner, Bergen Philharmonic

~~$21.99~~ $16.99
SACD

Chandos

May 12, 2023

CHSA 5311

Scandinavian String Music / Studt, Bournemouth Sinfonietta

Naxos

Available as CD

$19.99

Feb 08, 1995

Selections recorded May 31 and June 1, 1994.

Scandinavian String Music / Studt, Bournemouth Sinfonietta

$19.99
CD

Naxos

Feb 08, 1995

8553106

The Maiden's Prayer - Leaves From Grandmother's Piano Album

Naxos

Available as CD

$19.99

Sep 05, 1994

The Maiden's Prayer: Leaves from Grandmother's Piano Album

The Maiden's Prayer - Leaves From Grandmother's Piano Album

$19.99
CD

Naxos

Sep 05, 1994

8550646

The Classical Novaes - Beethoven, Mozart

Vox

Available as CD

$29.99

Jan 01, 1993

Seeing the name Guiomar Novaes makes me feel like a kid again, blowing my allowance on Everests and Vox Boxes and Vanguards and the like (Serious Record Collector's Disease can strike early and hard—parents, know the telltale signs!). By the time I hit puberty (the verb is entirely appropriate) I had acquired several of the Brazilian pianist's Chopin discs for Vox, although I did so more by happenstance than by design.

And then I was a child no more, and it was time to put away childish things. Novaes and her discographie companions were filed away with the rest of my immaturity as I graduated to bigger allowances, and bigger labels and artists. A few years ago I remember actually sneering at an acquaintance's suggestion that we listen to Novaes's recordings of a few Chopin Nocturnes. "How good could she be?' ' I asked him and myself.

I now eat my words, because Novaes is very good indeed. These three sets were both a trip down Memory Lane and a voyage into new territory. I knew about her close association with Chopin's music, but I didn't know to what extent she made her mark in Romantic and Classical repertoire. "The Classical Novaes" is Exhibit A: consider her serene, stately "Emperor" Concerto, a performance which doesn't deign to impress the listener with mere technical display. Also, consider her Mozart, a perfect blend of clarity and emotional involvement. This is music from the Classical period played with a Romantic sensibility, but one that doesn't glorify the artist at the expense of the art. With Novaes, Beethoven and Mozart came first.

The other two sets are similarly impressive by means of similar virtues. Novaes never hurries, never pounds, and never distorts, and while it would be easy to find more viscerally exciting or technically mind-boggling performances of these works, it would be hard to find ones that are classier or more poised. The Grieg concerto is a particular highlight: this is an uncommonly serious reading, one that blows the powdered sugar right off the snow drifts, and frankly, one of the best that I have ever heard. As for the Chopin, it goes straight to the listener with its intimacy. There's nothing special about Novaes's fingers, particularly in the Études and in the concerto, but the playing goes to the heart. And those Nocturnes! There are several great recordings of these works, but Novaes's are the ones that makes the recording process itself disappear, with her mellow colors and seamless line.

The orchestral accompaniments are passable and better than I expected, particularly when Perlea is on the podium. The 1955-ish sound ranges from dim (the Chopin sonata) to quite good (the Nocturnes), although one would expect some distortion in the concerto recordings. Vox has given us better-looking and better-made booklets than in the past, and the program notes are surprisingly intelligent and thorough, considering the price you'll pay for these sets. Oh yes, the price. Vox Boxes, usually go for $5-6 per disc, which means that you can pick up all three of the sets, plus Vox Box CDX2 5501, which includes some more of Novaes's concerto recordings (Beethoven 4, Chopin 2, and Schumann, all conducted by Klemperer) and some treasurable encores, for about the cost of a routine visit to the dentist. Skip a visit, eat fewer sweets, floss more often, and buy these discs. They would make great presents for old and new CD collectors too.

-- Raymond Tuttle, FANFARE

The Classical Novaes - Beethoven, Mozart

$29.99
CD

Vox

Jan 01, 1993

CDX2-5512

The Stories Of Schumann & Grieg

Vox

Available as CD

~~$19.99~~ $14.99

Jan 01, 1993

Includes work(s) by Robert Schumann, Edvard Grieg.

On Sale

The Stories Of Schumann & Grieg

~~$19.99~~ $14.99
CD

Vox

Jan 01, 1993

MMD 8505

Grainger: The Complete Piano Music / Martin Jones

Nimbus

Available as CD

$37.99

Oct 01, 1996

An essential box set of Graingeresque delight.

2011 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Percy Grainger’s death and the event has witnessed the reissue of a number of important recordings. This isn’t one such, because it’s remained in the Nimbus catalogue throughout, but I did want to draw brief attention to this super-abundant, characterful, and wholly marvellous five CD set of the complete piano music, played by the indefatigable, stylistically apt Martin Jones. He’s one of the undersung masters of a variety of repertoire – as good in Iberian music as he is in British, I’d suggest.

Here his encyclopaedic survey acts as a modern day cornerstone. You should hear his recordings, if you are excited by Grainger, and compare and contrast them with the composer’s own recordings which fortunately – all the 78s at any rate – have recently been reissued in a five CD set by APR [7501]. The experience is both exciting and diverting. But Grainger only recorded (and re-recorded) a fraction of his own pieces, whereas Jones has collared the lot. And how!

The first disc starts with some classic Grainger; the brio, clarity and speed of Jones’s take on Handel in the Strand is a tonic whilst To a Nordic Princess rises to a passionate pitch of assertion. In a Nutshell is a suite the charms of which seldom pall, and in this performance Jones crafts an unusually expressive Pastoral, slow and spare then incrementally building up in sonority, power and speed. The playful and vibrant badinage of The Immovable Do is especially well realised – one of the very best moments in this opening disc - though the reflective and beautiful Colonial Song runs it, very differently, close. Those who have never come across the roistering cakewalk of In Dahomey are in for a treat.

The second disc is given over to arrangements. To a degree it’s of less pressing interest to the Grainger novice, but it’s essential ground for those who want to understand his enthusiasms and the musical means by which he conveyed them. The opening of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto makes some fearsome demands on the intrepid solo pianist whereas the Brahms Cradle song that cannily follows it is delightfully spun – lissom legato, not lion-hearted virtuosity. His arrangement of Nimrod is probably quite well known but that of Rachmaninoff – the finale of the Second Concerto – probably less so. I must admit that the Dowland transcription, of Now, O now, I needs must part, is absolutely irresistible in Jones’s performance. He really does have the touch for refinement in these works. Of the other works, it’s interesting to contrast Grainger’s own 1929 78 of the Rosenkavalier with Jones’s. Then there’s the convoluted tribute to Stephen Foster, the well-known Bach Blithe Bells and the same composer’s Fugue in A minor – it reminds one of Bach’s importance to Grainger, as performer and composer.

The third disc offers 28 examples of Graingeresque delight. Some are very concise folk-songs and traditional songs, others better known examples of his art. Let me just suggest a few which I think especially illuminating or unusual. If you’ve not come across The Merry King, try to do so, and you won’t regret it; it’s hauntingly beautiful. A Jutish Melody was recorded by Grainger in one of his very rarest 78s – a double-sided 1929 Columbia. He takes it a touch faster than Jones. Spoon River is played with vibrancy but Jones is ever alert as to treble colouration. There are also the simple and complex versions of One more day my John.

The fourth disc is a curious collection but that only makes it the more valuable for completists. We have Stanford’s Four Irish Dances, the deeply sensitive Fauré songs – what a shame Grainger didn’t record them – and the opening movement transcription of the Schumann Piano Concerto, which, like the Rachmaninoff, is probably best known by close readers of Grainger’s work in this field – a virtuosic single-voiced domestication, as it were, of the concerto literature. Another such is the better remembered Grieg Concerto first movement, also in this disc. His homage to Delius comes via the Air and Dance – but there are plenty of things to occupy the eager ears in this disc. Uppermost amongst them we find Angelus ad Virginem, a lovely carol, and then some of Grainger’s early works. These include the Schumannesque Klavierstücke in E, and the other early pieces which are variously awkward and Brahmsian or, in the case of the one in B flat, incomplete. There’s also the one in D, which Grainger dedicated to his father. The Bigelow March, an insouciant piece, was actually written by Ella Grainger, Percy’s wife.

The final disc has bigger works, ending with The Warriors. It also includes those pieces written for four hands on one piano, four on two pianos, six on one piano and six on two pianos. Children's March: "Over the Hills and Far Away" is a sonorous and ebullient example of Martin Jones and Richard McMahon playing on two pianos. But all these pieces are richly exciting and attractive. In the midst of all this don’t overlook the calm solo Grainger fashioned from William Byrd – The Carman’s Whistle or indeed Gershwin’s Embraceable You. The resilience of the performers and the clarity of the six-handed, two-piano, arrangement of The Warriors elevates it to a must-hear experience.

I hope this has given some indication of why this is so essential a box for admirers of the composer. I appreciate that Nimbus’s sound in these 1989-91 recordings is not to everyone’s tastes, but it will certainly do, and the booklet notes are classy. What a splendid undertaking this was.

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

Grainger: The Complete Piano Music / Martin Jones

$37.99
CD

Nimbus

Oct 01, 1996

NI1767

Dinner Classics - Romance

Sony Masterworks

Available as CD

$11.99

Apr 07, 1992

This CD contains both analogue and digital recordings.

Dinner Classics - Romance

$11.99
CD

Sony Masterworks

Apr 07, 1992

MFK48260

American Classics - MacDowell: Piano Music Vol 3 /Barbagallo

Naxos

Available as CD

$19.99

Jun 01, 1999

One of the most important contributions Edward MacDowell made to American music was his reputation: born in New York City, trained in Paris and Vienna, he was the first Native-American composer to win respect in Europe. Among his supporters were Grieg and Liszt, and while MacDowell's music is frequently compared to the Norwegian master's for its lyricism and use of folk melodies--heard in miniatures such as the 'Forgotten Fairy Tales'--there is also strong affinity to the Faustian heroics of Liszt, as evidenced by the Piano Sonata No. 4, the 'Keltic.'
James Barbagallo has the full measure of the sonata, reveling in its dash and fire, and is quite fluent in the legerdemain of the 'Twelve Virtuoso Studies' as well as the rustic reveries of the 'Fairy Tales' or the Six Heine Poems. The young American pianist was well into a series of the complete MacDowell piano music at the time of his sudden death from a heart attack in 1996, but this disc serves as a powerful reminder of his accomplishment.

American Classics - MacDowell: Piano Music Vol 3 /Barbagallo

$19.99
CD

Naxos

Jun 01, 1999

8559019

Grieg: Complete Piano Works

Brilliant Classics

Available as CD

$43.99

Apr 30, 2026

H�kon Austb�'s highly regarded Grieg collection, reissued with a recent recording of the four-hands repertoire to make the most complete available set of the composer's piano music - and, by extension, an open window onto the soul of this most poetic of Scandinavian romantics. Edvard Grieg was a talented child pianist when the violinist Ole Bull heard him play, and straightaway recognised in him a talent deserving of nurture. While he went on to write a symphony and a few other large-scale works, Grieg found his voice most of all through the piano, and through the songs without words which he called Lyric Pieces. In themselves, these are extensions of the Schumann/Mendelssohn lineage of instrumental tone-pictures, as well as translations of the lyric impulse that made him an equally successful song-writer, especially once he had married his cousin, Nina, and found in her the singer who understood both him and his music best. Nina also played the piano well enough to form a duo partnership with her husband. In that context, we may understand the transcriptions of his orchestral Holberg and Peer Gynt suites as not merely financially expedient hackwork, done to exploit the domestic market for enjoying orchestral classics at home, but as an intimate act of devotion. In the gently tripping neobaroque dances of the Holberg Suite, as brought to life by two pianists sitting side by side, we can eavesdrop on a touching communion. Meanwhile, the ten books of Lyric Pieces came to form a kind of diary to which Grieg returned and confided some of his most intimate and experimental thoughts through the course of his entire career. Whether evoking nature, a solitary thought, or a lover's gaze, the Lyric Pieces go straight to the heart of the matter, often with a disarming simplicity of manner which conceals some sophistication of form and technique. Awarding H�kon Austb�'s cycle 10/10 for both performance and engineering, Jed Distler at Classics Today remarked: "Austb�'s performances are consistently direct, idiomatic, and as natural as breathing... his virile and dynamically charged traversal matches Grieg's pianism in spirit... You won't find a better Grieg piano music bargain anywhere on the planet."

Grieg: Complete Piano Works

$43.99
CD

Brilliant Classics

Apr 30, 2026

BRI97513

GRIEG: PEER GYNT SUITES 1 & 2 SIGURD JORSALFAR

DEUTSCHE GRAM FRANCE

Available as Vinyl

$58.04

Oct 25, 2024

The interpretation of Edvard Grieg's two Peer Gynt Suites, combined with orchestral pieces from his Sigurd Jorsalfar, occupies an important position among the highly acclaimed recordings by the Berliner Philharmoniker and their chief conductor, Herbert von Karajan. With their brilliant and expressive interpretation, the musicians demonstrate an enormous sensitivity for the Norwegian composer's unique atmospheric tonal language. - For it's 125th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon started releasing legendary recordings with the highest sound standards: The audiophile vinyl series The Original Source presents outstanding recordings from the 1970s in a whole new sound quality. For this, the renowned Emil Berliner Studios have remastered and edited the original four-track tapes in 100% analog quality (AAA) using technologies developed specifically to produce the series. The sonic differences to the original releases are considerable: greater clarity, more subtleties and improvements in frequency response, while at the same time less background noise, distortion and compression allow for an audiophile listening experience like never before. - On 180g vinyl records and in a deluxe gatefold edition with original covers and lyrics, the copies of this series are released limited and numbered, accompanied by additional photos and facsimiles of the recording logs and band boxes, and an article explains the exact technical background. - The Original Source is one of several new initiatives introduced by Deutsche Grammophon in 2023 as part of it's 125th-anniversary celebrations. The Original Source draws on the technical innovation that has been part of the label's identity ever since it was founded in 1898 by Emil Berliner, inventor of the gramophone. - "Deutsche Grammophon's distinctive nature was forged by iconic classical artists of the past, whose recordings are of timeless quality," notes Dr. Clemens Trautmann, President of Deutsche Grammophon. "Everything we do today is embedded in the wonderful 125 years of history we're celebrating this year and, in this new series, exceptional creative content goes hand in hand with the finest engineering techniques. We're delighted to present great music to our listeners in a unique audio format that will invite them to engage in a conscious listening experience." - Rainer Maillard, recording producer and managing director of Emil Berliner Studios, explains more about the process involved in creating The Original Source series: "Sometimes many years have to pass before old treasures are rediscovered. For it's 125th anniversary in 2023, DG will be reissuing a series of legendary recordings from the 1970s, cut for the first time directly from the 4-track �-inch masters, rather than the stereo �-inch tape copies. The result will be the highest possible, audiophile quality, giving listeners the chance to enjoy this repertoire as never before. "In order to better understand the background to this extraordinary series, it is worth looking at DG's technical developments in sound recording. It started recording for quadraphonic surround sound as early as 1970. The format was 4-track analogue tape, with left, right, front and rear channels. After the recording was finished, the 4-track tapes were edited in the studio at DG's site in Hannover. The various takes were cut with scissors and joined together again with sticky tape. - "Back then, however, there was no consumer format ready for quadraphonic playback, so DG was producing for the future. The label did release these recordings on regular vinyl LPs in stereo, of course, which meant the engineers had to create a stereo downmix of the 4-track master tape. For international distribution, DG made copies of this copy and sent them around the world for local manufacturing. "A tape copy can never sound as good as the original master tape, so the idea was born to make a product of the highest quality by using the original 4-track masters instead of the 2-track copies for lacquer cutting. They sound sensational, thanks to the expert team involved back in the day, and the analogue recording technology they were using. "For the new releases, two technical aspects have to be taken into account. Firstly, 4-track tape is twice as wide as the usual 2-track tape; therefore, we need a special tape machine. This has to be able to deliver a so-called preview signal, which allows the disc-cutting lathe to etch a perfect groove on the disc. Our tape machine had to be modified for this purpose and is probably the only one of it's kind in the world right now. Secondly, we need to mix the front and rear channels down to stereo in real time. A completely new, custom-built mixing desk was required for this project. Emil Berliner Studios have designed a passive mixer, which renders the highest quality without introducing any additional noise to the signal. - "The Original Source Series means: no tape copies used, no unnecessary devices in the signal path and, of course, no digital sound processing. This is the shortest possible way from the original master to the cutter head. "Compared to the original releases, the advantages in sound for the vinyl reissues are outstanding: greater clarity, more details and a better frequency response; less noise, less distortion, less compression.

GRIEG: PEER GYNT SUITES 1 & 2 SIGURD JORSALFAR

$58.04
Vinyl

DEUTSCHE GRAM FRANCE

Oct 25, 2024

DGRF4866123.1

The Very Best Of Grieg

Naxos

Available as CD

$29.99

Apr 18, 2006

Classical Music

The Very Best Of Grieg

$29.99
CD

Naxos

Apr 18, 2006

8552123-24

Grieg: Complete Solo Piano Music / Knardahl, Derwinger

BIS

Available as CD

$99.99

Oct 01, 2006

A beautifully packaged box of the complete Grieg piano music on BIS and a fantastic deal at 12 CDs for the price of 3.

There is so much here that one can explore these works for years and never truly get to the bottom of them... a collection of gems that sparkle from any angle.

Eva Knardahl's recordings of Grieg's music for solo piano – here completed with recordings by Love Derwinger of the works unpublished during Grieg's lifetime – have been a milestone ever since they were first released on LP at the end of the 1970s. The Norwegian pianist's interpretations of the music of her countryman blew away decades worth of cobwebs and caused many to reconsider an oeuvre of which one part was so well-known as to risk becoming banal and another was all but unknown. At the time of the first release one reviewer likened Knardahl to ‘an Alicia de Larrocha of the North, who makes her instrument ring out like a cathedral’. When the recordings were re-released on CD, another wrote that her performances ‘suggest that there's a lot more to Grieg's several hundred little pieces than pretty lyricism ... She brings a forthrightness and color to the Norwegian master – even a countrified robustness – that few have suspected is there. Knardahl's performance of the famous Piano Concerto is a rendering full of grandeur, poetry and power. She can really stand comparison with any of her rivals.’

FULL REVIEW

Norwegian-born pianist Eva Knardahl, who died in late 2006, had a very long career. Well-known in her native Norway, she made her debut at the age of 12 performing with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Throughout her life, she recorded a variety of works for piano, paying special attention to the works of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. This box set contains 12 CDs, covering all of Grieg’s compositions for piano.

Knardahl performs on the first ten discs in the set, and Love Derwinger is the pianist for the recordings on discs 11 and 12. This is a repackaging of individual discs that were released over the years, with the Knardahl recordings made between 1977 and 1980, and the Derwinger recordings dating from 1993. It seems unfair that only Knardahl gets her name on the front of the box; Derwinger is credited only on the back. Knaredahly’s recordings were issued first on LP and then reissued on CD in 1987.

The set contains a comprehensive booklet in English, Swedish, German and French, nearly 180 pages long - about 30 pages of text for each language. Fortunately, unlike many other Bis booklets, this one printed in a font that does not require a magnifying glass to read.

Grieg's piano music is one of the monuments of keyboard music, and probably deserves to be regarded much more highly. While not as intense as Beethoven's piano sonatas, or the works of Chopin or Liszt; while not as lofty as the vast output of Bach or that of Mozart, Grieg's piano music combines not only a unique impressionistic approach to the piano, but also elements of folk music from his native Norway. On top of that, many of the tunes in the short pieces are so engaging that you'll find yourself humming them.

Grieg's piano works are mostly made up of short pieces. His 66 lyric pieces, were composed throughout his career but there are also collections of Norwegian folk songs, peasant dances and other works. With just one piano sonata, and one piano concerto - but what a concerto! - his oeuvre is largely one of miniatures. But the size of these works in no way detracts from their interest and force. One can simply listen to the first of the Lyric Pieces, Arietta, to understand just how subtle Grieg's compositional style is. In a simple-sounding ballad of just over a minute, he manages not only to paint a melancholy picture, but also demonstrates that his harmonies are unique and unforgettable. This is a brief piano piece that is more a song without words than a statement of keyboard music.

The three discs of lyric pieces span his entire career, so listening to them in order offers not just a journey through melody, but also an opportunity to listen to how Grieg's style grew over time. His Op. 4 no. 3, Melody, has an intense, melodramatic sound, as does, for example, Op. 54, no. 1, Shepherd's Boy, which is a dark work. Some pieces have such lightness that one can only smile when listening to them. In a way, however, it is fitting that the final work in this series, Op. 71, no. 7, Forgetting, is a reworking of one of the earliest lyric pieces, Waltz, Op. 12 no. 2. Grieg comes full circle with this last lyric piece, showing the subtle ways in which his music evolved.

While there is pleasure enough in listening to the progression of Grieg's style through the first three discs of lyric pieces, one can start again with disc 4, which begins another examination of Grieg's career in chronological order. While it makes sense to group the lyric pieces on the first three discs - which also corresponds to the original release of these recordings on individual discs - it might have been more logical to reorder all the music so the twelve discs flowed in chronological sequence, rather than having two "sets" within the box.

Beginning with the earliest pieces, his Op. 1, Four Piano Pieces, his Poetic Tone-Pictures (Op. 3) and so on, the set traverses his output. In spite of the different names given to groups of works, Grieg's tone does not vary a great deal. All the pieces cover a range of tones from melancholy to exuberant, from bittersweet to pastoral.

An exception can be found in his sets of Norwegian folk songs, where he arranged the raw material of his country's music heritage for solo piano. These helped gain him greater notice, and are one of the finest examples of folk-music brought into the concert hall. There are dozens of such works, many of them tiny gems, others more substantial.

Grieg also wrote one piano sonata, which is somewhat different, on the surface, from his smaller works. A true romantic sonata, it nevertheless features his now familiar song-like approach to music, especially in its second movement. This sonata was and is often performed, yet it is surprising that he did not write another. He remained more interested in his miniatures though he also wrote orchestral and chamber works. In the same manner, he composed just the one piano concerto, which is an extremely popular and oft-performed work. It is played here by Knardahl, with the original version also performed by Love Derwinger.

One work that stands out is the Ballade in G minor, Op. 24, the longest amongst Grieg's pianistic output at just over 20 minutes in this recording. This comprises a series of 14 variations on a Norwegian folk song. Grieg composed this piece after the deaths of his parents in the autumn of 1875. He was overcome with grief, and that comes through in this densely emotional work Knardahl plays it with her emotions at her fingertips.

Some of the pieces are transcriptions from Grieg's larger orchestral works, such as Peer Gynt, Sigurd Jorsalfar, and the Holberg Suite. Grieg very much enjoyed making piano reductions of these works, and his transcriptions shed interesting light on the larger works from which they derive.

The last two discs contain works not published during Grieg's lifetime. Whether the early version of the Piano Concerto, alternate versions of a few works, or some very early pieces that he never deemed interesting enough for publication, these two discs in essence offer the extras or out-takes of Grieg's piano output.

Across the 787 minutes of this set, I have to confess to a preference for Grieg's shorter pieces over the piano sonata, concerto and Ballade. From almost any time in his career, from his lyric pieces to the Norwegian folk songs, from his "short pieces" to his transcriptions of his own songs, dipping into this astounding range of work is never disappointing. In the same way that Schubert rarely wrote a mediocre lied, Grieg has very few weak piano pieces. You can dip into these works at any time and the gods of shuffle will pull out an interesting juxtaposition of pieces that, in spite of when they were composed, fit together organically. There is so much here - again, the comparison to Schubert's lieder comes to mind - that one can explore these works for years and never truly get to the bottom of them. While the last two discs contain some works that are, perhaps, minor, the remainder of this set is a collection of gems that sparkle from any angle.

The recording quality of these discs is excellent, and the piano sounds present without too much reverb, though the Derwinger recordings are a bit hollower than the Knardahl discs. The recording hall adds a different type of reverb, and Derwinger plays a Steinway to Knardahl’s Bösendorfer. For an interesting recording, you might also want to listen to Leif Ove Andsnes' selection of Lyric Pieces played on Grieg's own piano. Given the price and completeness of this set, and the quality of the performances, there is little reason for you to hesitate. Even if you've only sampled Grieg's works in the past, this budget set is a fine reason to discover the full range of his piano compositions. Should you not want all this Grieg, however, the individual discs are still available from BIS, and the three CDs of Lyric Pieces would be a great purchase.

-- Kirk McElhearn, MusicWeb International

Grieg: Complete Solo Piano Music / Knardahl, Derwinger

$99.99
CD

BIS

Oct 01, 2006

BIS-CD-1626-28

Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites, etc / Ruud, Bergen PO

BIS

Available as SACD

$21.99

Sep 01, 2006

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites, etc / Ruud, Bergen PO

$21.99
SACD

BIS

Sep 01, 2006

BIS-SACD-1591

Grieg: Holberg Suite, Tone Pictures, Lyric Pieces / Katya Apekisheva

Quartz Music

Available as CD

$18.99

Jan 01, 2008

Mesmerising playing from a young pianist who captures the essence of Grieg’s genius

Let me put my cards on the table and say that Katya Apekisheva is a young pianist who has already achieved artistic greatness. Not even Gilels, in his legendary DG Grieg recital, played more magically or, astonishingly, with greater finesse. How thrilled Irina Zaritskaya, Apekisheva’s teacher and my much-missed jury colleague, would have been if she had lived to hear the fruit of her work with this profoundly gifted artist. A sonority of beguiling warmth and refinement and a rare poetic empathy quickly make you abandon paper and pencil and listen mesmerised as Apekisheva captures the very essence of Grieg’s genius. Here, in her mixed programme, she tells you with an often painfully beautiful and unforced eloquence of how Grieg’s romantic temperament was easily clouded by depression and unease, of the way, for example in “Homesickness” and “Vanished Days”, a heartbreaking state of mind is only temporarily modified by memories of happier times. In the Aria from the Holberg Suite she is deeply sensitive to the way Grieg’s love and respect for the 18th century is coloured by a near-Franckian chromaticism and dark introspection. These works and everything else on this beautifully recorded album suggest an artistic fervour and commitment given to very few in any generation.

The sense of the Lyric Pieces as Grieg’s confessional diary is everywhere in Apekisheva’s recital, an inwardness and vision less evident in Daniel Propper’s bracing recording of four books of the Lyric Pieces. Nimble-fingered and musicianly, this Swedish-Viennese pianist, who now makes his home in Paris, shows Grieg’s art evolving from simple beginnings into a world of increasing complexity and harmonic richness. His “Little Bird” (from Op 43) blithely chirrups in a manner far removed from Messiaen’s more spiritual feathered friends, and his way with “Erotic” from the same book achieves a fine sense of how outward contentment abruptly changes to emotional instability. In “Butterfly” he hardly matches Eileen Joyce’s incomparable nuance and vivacity (Testament), yet these finely recorded performances are an admirable antidote to all possible sentimentality.

-- Bryce Morrison, Gramophone [9/2008]

Grieg: Holberg Suite, Tone Pictures, Lyric Pieces / Katya Apekisheva

$18.99
CD

Quartz Music

Jan 01, 2008

QTZ2061

Leif Ove Andsnes - The Warner Classics Edition 1990-2010

WARNER CLASSICS

Available as CD

$98.12

Apr 12, 2024

Leif Ove Andsnes is a leading pianist of his time, known for his exceptional musicianship and subtil touch, his considerable technical flair being unfailingly put at the service of his interpretations. He was a pioneer for being the first home-trained superstar pianist to have emerged from Norway. This box is the story of a 20-year partnership that has yielded a rich seam of recorded treasures, first for Virgin and then for EMI. Running through this cornucopia of 34 albums (36 CDs), we find recurring themes: Grieg (Andsnes even recorded some Lyric Pieces on the composer's own piano at Troldhaugen), Nordic music in general, Schumann, Rachmaninov, Schubert.

Leif Ove Andsnes - The Warner Classics Edition 1990-2010

$98.12
CD

WARNER CLASSICS

Apr 12, 2024

WCL741400.2

Seraph / Tine Thing Helseth, Ensemble Allegria

LAWO Classics

Available as CD

$18.99

Jan 13, 2023

Tine Thing Helseth is back with a new release – “Seraph” – this time together with Ensemble Allegria. Helseth and Allegria have had a close association for many years and have appeared together at the Bergen International Festival, the Northern Lights Festival in Tromsø, the Oslo Chamber Music Festival, and on the main stage at the Norwegian National Opera. This release features some familiar as well as lesser known works for trumpet and string orchestra by composers from Norway and abroad, with the first four written for this instrumentation, while the last three were arranged by Jarle Storløkken. In Tine’s own words: “Seraph” is an album I have wanted to record for a long time, both because of the repertoire and the ensemble I’m playing with. I studied together with these musicians and many are good friends I’ve known for a long time. This makes it all the more rewarding, fun and inspiring to play together!

Seraph / Tine Thing Helseth, Ensemble Allegria

$18.99
CD

LAWO Classics

Jan 13, 2023

LWC1251

My First Orchestra Book / Helsby, Eklund

Naxos

Available as Book

~~$16.99~~ $8.49

Mar 03, 2014

• A delightfully colourful introduction to the orchestra, aimed to fire the imagination of children aged 4–9 years. There is a special guide in the book: a little green creature called Tormod. He is a troll who has come all the way from the top of a mountain in Norway to discover music. As he searches for the music that will help him to find his way home, readers learn about the different instruments – what they look and sound like, and how they belong in different families. Throughout the book children are referred to the accompanying CD so that they can hear examples as they read. There is a musical quiz at the end, with multiple choice answers.

• 37 classical music tracks on the CD include: Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy, Mozart’s Overture to The Magic Flute, Tchaikovsky’s ‘Russian Dance’ from The Nutcracker, Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, Wagner’s Overture to Tannhäuser, Grieg’s ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ from Peer Gynt – and many more

• An original, colorful and lively approach to learning about music.

• Follows the huge success of My First Classical Music Book and Meet the Instruments of the Orchestra! from Naxos.

• 37 classical music tracks on the CD.

• Every instrument is featured, with clear audio examples.

• 60 beautifully illustrated pages that children will love."

On Sale

My First Orchestra Book / Helsby, Eklund

~~$16.99~~ $8.49
Book

Naxos

Mar 03, 2014

9781843797708

Piano Rhapsody - An Odyssey from Bach to Satie / Pöntinen

BIS

Available as CD

~~$42.99~~ $30.99

Jul 30, 2013

Roland Pöntinen first entered a recording studio for BIS in 1983 – at the age of 20 – and released his début recital disc the following year. Since then he has appeared on more than 60 discs in the label’s catalogue, as soloist with orchestra, in piano recital and chamber music programs. Drawn from this impressive discography, Piano Rhapsody is a wide-ranging collection of pieces which allows us to admire the talent, the breadth of repertoire and the unquenchable curiosity of this ‘pianists’ pianist’.

But it is also an odyssey through the piano literature, which takes in the well-known
and less familiar (from Für Elise to Carl Tausig’s Johann Strauss paraphrase), and features
miniatures as well as bravura works (Satie’s Gnossiennes and Grieg’s Piano Concerto). It also
traverses a large tract of music history, making stops in the 1720s (Bach’s Prelude No.1 in C
major), the budding Romantic era (C.M. von Weber’s Perpetuum Mobile) and ’the Age of the Great Virtuosos’ (Liszt and Rubinstein, among others) and reflecting the proliferation of national schools in the early 20th century, with composers of Russian, French, Spanish, Norwegian, Swedish and Czech extraction. All in all, the generous playing time (5 hours 20 minutes) and the wide-ranging program provide a unique opportunity to explore the piano and its literature, with one of Sweden’s finest pianists as our guide.

On Sale

Piano Rhapsody - An Odyssey from Bach to Satie / Pöntinen

~~$42.99~~ $30.99
CD

BIS

Jul 30, 2013

BIS-9044