Grieg: Choir Music / Pedersen, Norwegian Soloists Choir

$15.99
Label
BIS
Release Date
August 1, 2007
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      GRIEG, EDVARD
    • ORCHESTRA / ENSEMBLE
      Norwegian Soloists Choir
    • PERFORMER
      Grete, Trine Wilsberg, Pedersen-Helgerod, Lund
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      August 01, 2007
    • UPC
      7318599916613
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      BIS-SACD-1661
    • LABEL
      BIS
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      1
    • GENRE
      Choral - Sacred
    Works ⌄

    1. 12 Songs, Op. 33: No. 9. Ved Rondane (At Rondane) (arr. for choir)

      Composer: Edvard Grieg

      Ensemble: The Norwegian Soloists' Choir

      Performer: Trine Wilsberg Lund

      Conductor: Grete Pedersen-Helgerod

    2. Album for mandssang (Album for Male Voices), Op. 30: No. 1. Jeg lagde mig sa sildig (I Lay Down so Late)

      Composer: Edvard Grieg

      Ensemble: The Norwegian Soloists' Choir

      Performer: Bard Bratlie

      Conductor: Grete Pedersen-Helgerod

    3. 6 Songs, Op. 39: No. 5. Ved en ung hustrus bare (At the Grave of a Young Wife) (arr. for choir)

      Composer: Edvard Grieg

      Ensemble: The Norwegian Soloists' Choir

      Conductor: Grete Pedersen-Helgerod

    4. Ave, maris stella, EG 150 (arr. for choir)

      Composer: Edvard Grieg

      Ensemble: The Norwegian Soloists' Choir

      Conductor: Grete Pedersen-Helgerod

    5. 4 Songs, Op. 15: No. 1. Margretes vuggesang (Margaret's Cradle Song) (arr. for choir)

      Composer: Edvard Grieg

      Ensemble: The Norwegian Soloists' Choir

      Conductor: Grete Pedersen-Helgerod

    6. Barnlige Sange (Children's Songs), Op. 61: No. 5. Kveldssang for Blakken (Goodnight Song for Dobbin)

      Composer: Edvard Grieg

      Ensemble: The Norwegian Soloists' Choir

      Conductor: Grete Pedersen-Helgerod

    7. Landkjending (Land-Sighting), Op. 31

      Composer: Edvard Grieg

      Ensemble: The Norwegian Soloists' Choir

      Performer: Audun Iversen, Kåre Nordstoga

      Conductor: Grete Pedersen-Helgerod

    8. 12 Songs, Op. 33: No. 2. Varen (Last Spring) (arr. for choir)

      Composer: Edvard Grieg

      Ensemble: The Norwegian Soloists' Choir

      Performer: Janne Berglund, Silje Aker Johnsen

      Conductor: Grete Pedersen-Helgerod

    9. I Folketone (In The Folk Style) (based on Lyric Pieces, Book 10, Op. 71: No. 1. Once Upon A Time)

      Composer: Edvard Grieg

      Ensemble: The Norwegian Soloists' Choir

      Performer: Berit Norbakken Solset

      Conductor: Grete Pedersen-Helgerod

    10. No. 4. I Himmelen (In Heaven above)

      Composer: Edvard Grieg

      Ensemble: The Norwegian Soloists' Choir

      Performer: Audun Iversen

      Conductor: Grete Pedersen-Helgerod

    11. No. 3. Jesus Kristus er opfaren (Jesus Christ Our Lord is Risen)

      Composer: Edvard Grieg

      Ensemble: The Norwegian Soloists' Choir

      Performer: Bard Bratlie

      Conductor: Grete Pedersen-Helgerod

    12. No. 2. Guds Son har gjort mig fri (God's Son hath Set me Free)

      Composer: Edvard Grieg

      Ensemble: The Norwegian Soloists' Choir

      Performer: Audun Iversen

      Conductor: Grete Pedersen-Helgerod

    13. No. 1. Hvad est du dog skjon (How Fair is Thy Face)

      Composer: Edvard Grieg

      Ensemble: The Norwegian Soloists' Choir

      Performer: Bard Bratlie

      Conductor: Grete Pedersen-Helgerod


This is an, err… enchanting disc of Grieg’s choral music – both original and arranged for choir. The opening, resonant, full bodied choral arrangement of the popular “At Rondane”, op.33, No.2 (originally for voice and piano) is plain gorgeous in its moody way. Two religious songs were prepared for mixed choir by Grieg himself of which “Withered, Fallen – At the Bier of a Young Wife” sounds a bit predictable, but touching in its cathedral-like piety. In this song, as in “Ave, Maris Stella” or indeed most of the other works on this glorious sounding (multi-channel/stereo) hybrid SACD, the non-Norwegian ear will always pick up a certain preciousness, that silver-voiced, Christmas-choir touch with scents and touches of mulled wine, snow boots, and blond locks under a woolen hat.

“Margaret’s Cradle Song” op.15, No.1, a short gem some 90 seconds long, was written in appreciation of the birth of his daughter Alexandra in 1868. It is set to the Ibsen poem of the same name and hauntingly beautiful. Alexandra, however, never got to appreciate her song; she died shortly after it was written. (Which is tragic and yet, given that it was set to something by Ibsen, also so terribly appropriate.)

Grete Pedersen, who conducts the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir also sets the first of the Lyric Pieces op.71 “Det var engang” for mixed choir. It might be the only miscalculation in that the result sounds nice and pleasant but also — in its dum-de-dum new-agey way — cheap.

Norway was already an independent nation when Grieg composed the 1907 Four Psalms op.74, his last work. It’s a somber end to his musical output – with “Jesus Christ is Risen” being an especially austere, if moving, setting of this Hans Adolf Brorson text. The four psalm settings are based on a collection of Norwegian “newer and older mountain tunes” that Grieg wanted to help preserve with his musical adoption. He has achieved that all over again by having them included in this very fine reminder that Grieg is so much more than the Grieg of a certain mountain king’s hall, or of lyric pieces, or a piano concerto.

-- Jens F. Laurson, WETA 90.9