Edvard Grieg Complete Symphonic Works, Vol. V

As usual (as if you remember these things from one year to the next), I’ll lead up to my final choices with a few deserving near-misses. I’ll begin with a handful of mainstream releases, even though I spend most of my time looking into music’s more obscure corners. The final installment of Eivind Aadland’s five-volume survey of Grieg’s complete orchestral music (Audite 92.671)—Peer Gynt and orchestral songs, so it’s pretty familiar material—maintained the sterling virtues of the first four: This was the best Grieg recording to come my way in a long time. Manfred Honeck’s reading of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (Reference Recordings FR-720SACD) sent shivers down my spine—and it’s accompanied by Honeck’s own 20-minute fantasy on material from Dvořák’s opera Rusalka, which is wholly delightful. And Yevgeny Sudbin’s second Scarlatti recording for BIS (BIS-2138) presented astonishing pianism and lively musical imagination in equal measure.

But now it’s time to wander off the beaten track a little. A third volume of the Röntgen String Trios (Nos. 9–12) from the Lendvai String Trio (Champs Hill Records CHRCD101) kept that particular flag flying, but I have more Röntgen to come back to in my final five. Two recordings from The Sixteen brought music of extraordinary beauty: Vol. 1 of Monteverdi’s Missa a Quattro voci e salmi, conducted by Harry Christophers (Coro COR16142), and the fourth album in a series conducted by Eamonn Dougan that uncovers the music of the Polish Renaissance and here featured three Italian composers who worked in Poland: Asprilio Pacelli, Vincenzo Bertolusi, and Luca Marenzio (COR16141). Another BIS release brought the orchestral works of George Butterworth that we all know and love (The Banks of Green Willow, Six Songs from “A Shropshire Lad,” the Shropshire Lad rhapsody, Two English Idylls, and Love Blows as the Wind Blows), with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Kriss Russman, but added two new scores: Russman’s realization for string orchestra of the Suite for String Quartette and his completion of an Orchestral Fantasia, of which Butterworth left only 92 bars of score when he went off to war and an early death (BIS-2195). A Lawo Classics CD (LWC1101) from Rune Alver of the Norwegian David Monrad Johansen’s piano music made a better case for him than many of his more imposing scores and demonstrated how much the music of Debussy echoed round the fjords. A Neeme Järvi CD from Chandos, with the two suites from Martinů’s ballet Špaliček and the Rhapsody-Concerto for viola and orchestra, the latter with the violist Mikhail Nemtsov and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (CHAN 10885), was nothing less than life-enhancing. A CPO CD of chamber music—Clarinet Quartet, op. 1; Fantasiestücke, op. 2; Violin Sonata, op. 6—by the Viennese composer Walter Rabl (1873–1940) was a revelation: music as good as Brahms’s, but Rabl stopped composing at the age of 30. This album makes it plain what a terrible loss to music that was, since he still had half his life ahead of him. Another CPO CD (777 687-2) brought Paul Graener‘s Piano Concerto, op. 72, Symphonietta, op. 27, Drei Schwedische Tänze, op. 98, and Divertimento, op. 67, from pianist Oliver Triendl and the Munich Radio Orchestra conducted by Alun Francis—such big-hearted music that one feels that, despite his association with the Nazi Party (he was vice-president of the Reichsmusikkammer from 1935 to 1941), he must have been a decent soul underneath it all. Last of my nearly-made-it recordings is Leo Ornstein‘s Piano Quintet and Second String Quartet, from Marc-André Hamelin and Pacifica String Quartet (Hyperion CDA68084)—just about the feistiest piano quintet you will ever hear.

Now to my final five. Neeme Järvi’s recording of Kurt Atterberg’s First and Fifth Symphonies made it into my Want List last year, and his account of No. 3, “West Coast Pictures,” does so this year as well. The entire album is nothing less than glorious, the chief glory being the 36-minute Third Symphony, composed in 1914–16 as (as the title, Västkustbilder, suggests) a series of tableaux depicting the Swedish west-coast archipelago where it was written. A double album of Korngold’s Complete Songs (not quite, in fact, since they left one or two things out) from baritone Konrad Jarnot and soprano Adrianne Pieczonka, with Reinild Mees at the piano, offered one masterpiece after another: There is not a weak bar in sight, and all of it glows with Korngold’s unique ardent lyricism. A three-CD set from the violinist Oliver Kipp and cellist Katharina Troe (Thorofon (CHT 2628/3) assembled all Röntgen’s works for solo violin, solo cello, and violin-cello duo and so offered a musical feast of astonishing richness, almost all of it completely known before now. The two string quintets by Sergei Taneyev—op. 14 in G Major and op. 16 in C Major—are both masterpieces that open windows on to the human soul; they get wonderful performances from the Utrecht String Quartet, joined by the cellist Pieter Wispelwey in op. 14 and violist Alexander Nemtsov in op. 6 (MDG603 1923-2). Finally, a boxed set of Telemann’s complete wind concertos (with La Stagione Frankfurt and Camerata Köln conducted by Michael Schneider; CPO 777 939-2) collects eight separate CDs released between 2007 and 2012, and brought eight-and-a-half hours of unalloyed pleasure. The very list of the 46 concertos assembled here beggars belief: All with strings and basso continuo, there are six concertos for flute and for two flutes and bassoon; five for oboe; four for two horns; two each for two oboes and bassoon, oboe d’amore, two chalumeaux (an early form of clarinet), recorder and two violins, two recorders; and one each for horn, two horns and two oboes, two oboes d’amore, two chalumeaux and two bassoons, recorder and flute, oboe and two violins, recorder, alto recorder, recorder and bassoon, recorder and horn, piccolo, trumpet, and trumpet and two oboes. And there’s not a dull piece among them—imagine a musical landscape somewhere between the Bach violin concertos and Handel’s concerti grossi and you’ll have some idea of the sheer delight awaiting the listener.

This completes a set of five absolutely outstanding discs. Performances are so fresh and instinctive, plus the bonus of so much unknown, totally magical music. Sound quality is excellent and the whole set is a complete joy.

This is volume five of Audite’s survey of the complete symphonic music of Edvard Grieg, and not surprisingly, it continues to delight with excellent performances and wonderful surprises from the corners of this great composer’s output (not to mention the very familiar Peer Gynt music). This edition features two works for orchestra and voice, including six songs for soprano, and one for baritone. The six orchestral songs are a grouping of early works with piano accompaniment that the composer orchestrated in Copenhagen in 1895. They are exceptionally beautiful, with, typically for Grieg, a strong folk influence. Swedish soprano Camilla Tilling sounds very much in her element here, with her light bodied, lyrical soprano capturing the mood of the music nicely. The song for baritone, Den Bergtekne (The Mountain Thrall) was written for orchestra and voice, the only such example in Grieg’s output, according to the program notes. Norwegian singer Tom Erik Lie renders the music with the gravity of a Schubert song. The two Lyric Pieces, as well as the Norwegian Dances, are also orchestrations of familiar piano music. The Lyric Pieces sound a bit overweight in this garb, but the Norwegian Dances, originally for piano four hands, translate well.

No surprises here as far as Aadland and his Cologne musicians are concerned, and that’s a good thing, because previous releases have also featured lusty, deeply committed performances. Great engineering from Audite, also as usual (and I am only hearing it in standard CD playback). This is a terrific series.

This series has been good except where there is formidable competition. This program is, by that standard, mixed. Certainly the Norwegian Dances here can’t compete with Jarvi on DG (Gothenburg Symphony). Note also that Grieg never orchestrated these dances; they were written for two pianos. The two pieces from Peer Gynt are available in complete recordings—just not in the suites. But most of one piece (Act I Prelude) is just ‘Solveig’s Song’ for orchestra, and we have that on dozens of recordings. The other piece takes less than 2 minutes. The Opus 68 Lyric Pieces are seldom heard in orchestrated form. The only Lyric Pieces that have been recorded often by orchestras are the Opus 54 set. (But there is a Naxos that has Opus 68: 572403.)

I don’t like ‘The Mountain Thrall’, a six-minute piece for baritone and orchestra.

That leaves the six orchestral songs. Three of them are familiar: the two Solveig songs from Peer Gynt and ‘The Last Spring’. To those are added ‘From Monte Pincio’, ‘A Swan’, and ‘Henrik Wergeland’. I know no better recording of the six songs, though of course there are better ones of the Solveig songs in sets of Peer Gynt. (Eileen Farrell did one of them with Fiedler.)

Tempos are slower than in any other recording I know. The singer never sounds “operatic” but has a sweet folk simplicity combined with a lovely, well-trained voice. There’s a Norwegian melancholy here that often fails to show up.

The six songs take 27 minutes (Inger Dam-Jensen on Naxos takes 24 minutes). Add the 8 minutes of the two Lyric Pieces, and there is 35 minutes of music here that can’t be beat elsewhere. Sound is excellent.

Japanische Rezension siehe PDF!

Mit ganz so edlen Waffen wird auf der folgenden Aufnahme nicht gefochten, wo sich Camilla Tilling und Tom Erik Lie beim Grieg-Zyklus des Norwegers Eivind Aadland mit dem WDR-Sinfonieorchester ins Zeug legen. Mit der fünften Ausgabe gehen die Complete Symphonic Works mit der Einspielung von weniger bekannten Orchesterliedern effektvoll ins Ziel (audite 92.671). Die Sechs Orchesterlieder von 1894/95 beispielsweise fassen u.a. mit zwei Solveig-Weisen Auszüge aus der Schauspielmusik zu „Peer Gynt“ sowie Bearbeitungen von Klavierliedern – darunter „From Monte Pincio“ oder das dem norwegischen Patrioten und Dichter Wergeland gewidmete Lied – zusammen. Tilling glänzt vor allem im fast wagnerischen „Letzter Frühling“. Mitbringsel von Griegs Sommer-Aufenthalten in Hardanger sind neben den Orchesterbearbeitungen der Lyrischen Stücke für Klavier mit „Abend im Hochgebirge“ und „Wiegenleid“ die stark volkstümlich gefärbten Norwegischen Tänze op. 35 und die stimmungsvolle Orchesterballade für Bariton „Den Bergtekne“, was Michael Struck-Schloen im schönen dt. engl. Beiheft als „Der durch den Berg Entrückte“ wiedergibt. Beiheft (dt., engl.). Das WDR-Sinfonieorchester sorgt u.a. mit erhabenen Holzbläser-Passagen dafür, dass der Hörer sich eine gute Stunde lang in norwegische Landschaften entrückt fühlen darf.

Sometimes you open up an innocent looking CD and discover a box of treasures. That’s what this one is like. Not having listened to any Grieg for a little while, I was pleased enough to come across this recording but it turns out to be full of truly wonderful things. Plenty of variety too, with short orchestral works, incidental music, and songs with orchestra.

It’s these last – the songs – that lie at the heart of this collection, and bring its most memorable experiences. The soprano Camilla Tilling is a rare talent, and is to be heard at her best in this Scandinavian repertoire. I first heard her in a fine CD of Strauss songs with piano, and was struck then with the freshness of her tone, the open, natural manner of her singing. That is again the case here, perhaps enhanced by the character of the Norwegian language though she herself is Swedish.

All the songs are sung with great beauty and an unsentimental strength of emotion. Solveig’s Song from Peer Gynt is famously affecting, but I can’t remember hearing it sung as perfectly as this. A Swan, to Henrik Ibsen’s poem, is hauntingly elegiac, while The Last Spring achieves a remarkable intensity. Tilling has the ability to sing this often subtle and demanding music as if it comes straight from the heart, which I’m sure it does.

All through these songs, she is accompanied with the greatest sensitivity by Eivind Aadland and the WDR Symphony Orchestra. They are equally engaged for Tom Erik Lie’s singing of The Mountain Thrall – the only Grieg song that was originally set for voice and orchestra. Matters of balance have been most carefully addressed by the performers, and the excellence of the recording simply facilitates that.

The first two tracks are items taken from the music Grieg wrote for Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt. Neither of these is to be heard in the familiar suites; we have the Act 1 Prelude, quite an extended piece that incorporates Solveig’s Song, while the second is the sensual Dance of the Mountain King’s Daughter, with its Arabic colouring. The whole programme, which could have been a little disparate, is given a satisfying shape by ‘book-ending’ it with orchestral items, the final four tracks being the delightful Norwegian Dances of op.35. Again I was struck here by the very fine orchestral playing. The first Dance - which brings us Grieg in his ‘Mountain King’ mode evoking wicked dwarves and trolls - fairly rattles along, while the oboe playing in no.2 (Allegro tranquillo e grazioso) is beautifully phrased and full of gentle wit. The same characteristics are to be found in the two Lyric Pieces on tracks 9 and 10. I was particularly taken with Evening in the Mountains, an atmospheric and moody little piece, that brings us an oboe ‘ranz des vaches’ reminiscent of the cor anglais solo in Tristan, followed by yet another example of Grieg’s unsurpassed wiring for strings.

All in all, a disc of the highest quality. Grieg is a composer that it’s far too easy to take for granted, and to think no further than the Peer Gynt Suites and the Piano Concerto. There is an awful lot more to him than that, and this CD, Volume 5 of a ‘Complete Symphonic Works’ project, demonstrates that in the most enjoyable way possible.

Was im Juni 2011 mit der ersten von insgesamt fünf Einspielungen des gesamten sinfonischen Werks von Edvard Grieg mit dem WDR-Sinfonieorchester unter der Leitung des Norwegers Eivind Aadland begann, ist nun vollendet. Die die Gesamteinspielung abschließende, soeben erschienene fünfte CD, stellt den Liedkomponisten und Bearbeiter Grieg in den Mittelpunkt.

Immer wieder hat er sich leidenschaftlich gegen den Vorwurf der "Norwegerei" gewehrt – doch die Werke dieser CD belegen eindrucksvoll, dass Edvard Grieg sich seines Bekenntnisses zu seiner norwegischen Heimat, zu deren Klang, Atmosphäre, zu deren elegischem Naturmythos alles andere als schämen musste. Denn was Grieg uns in seiner Musik zu Ibsens "Peer Gynt", seinen Norwegischen Tänzen op. 35, den zwei lyrischen Stücken op. 68 und insbesondere in seinem Zyklus "Sechs Lieder für Orchester" hinterlassen hat, ist der Beleg eines Komponisten, der die Instrumentationsraffinessen der Spätromantik bravourös einzusetzen wusste. Umso wertvoller, dass wir sie nun in einer mustergültigen Edition vollständig vorliegen haben.

Aadland als Natur- und Seelenführer

Das WDR Sinfonieorchester schlägt unter Eivind Aadland genau den richtigen Ton an, den es braucht, um Griegs Heimat akustisch erlebbar werden zu lassen. Einen besseren Natur- und Seelenführer als den Norweger Aadland hätte sich das Orchester nicht wünschen können. Aadland weiß genau, wovon die Musik erzählt. Und so lässt er sie an langer Leine ebenso ausgelassen feiern, mit wachem Ohr für die burschikose Heiterkeit vieler volksmusikalischer Elemente, wie er auch die überwältigenden Eindrücke einer sich auf die Berge legenden Abendstimmung mit majestätischem Staunen zu Gehör bringt. Aadlands Grieg ist kraftvoll, jedes Motiv ist bis ins Detail ausgelotet, bis ins letzte geschliffen und fügt sich doch wie selbstverständlich in einen in jedem Moment spürbaren Blick für die Gesamtform ein.

Atemberaubende Klanglandschaften

Wälder, Berge, Fjorde – Edvard Grieg hat Norwegens grandiose Landschaften in atemberaubende Klanglandschaften verwandelt. Ja, es sind manch elegische, lyrische, träumerisch-versonnene Momente in dieser Musik, so, als ob sich sanfte Nebelschwaden über die Natur legen – aber von welcher Schönheit! Und gerade, wenn sich die Musik über Worte legt und diese vom goldwarmen Klang der Sopranistin Camilla Tilling zu leuchten beginnen.

Griegsche Orchesterkosmos

Über vier Jahre haben sich das WDR Sinfonieorchester und Eivind Aadland auf das orchestrale Gesamtwerk Edvard Griegs konzentriert. Sicher, eine neue Gesamteinspielung der Symphonien von Beethoven, Brahms oder Bruckner mag spektakulärer klingen – aber auch diese fünfte und letzte Grieg-CD beweist: Es lohnt sich den Blick zu weiten, auch zu einem Komponisten, der musikalisch viel mehr Sprachen sprach, als "nur" die norwegische. Mit dieser exemplarischen Einspielung kommt man an der Vielsprachigkeit des Griegschen Orchesterkosmos endgültig nicht mehr vorbei. "Norwegischer" geht nicht!

Sendebeleg siehe PDF!

Mit diesem Album beschließt Audite die fünfteilige Gesamtaufnahme aller Orchesterwerke des norwegischen Nationalkomponisten. Die CD beginnt mit zwei Nummern aus der Bühnenmusik (nicht aus den Suiten) zu Henrik Ibsens Drama ‘Peer Gynt’ und endet mit den ‘Norwegischen Tänzen’ op. 35, die das WDR-Orchester hinreißend spielt, völlig gelöst und mit genuinem Schwung.

Grandioser Höhepunkt der CD sind die ‘Sechs Orchesterlieder’, weil mit Camilla Tilling und Eivind Aadland zwei Musiker aufeinandergetroffen sind, die dem elegischen Zyklus die Klangwelt verleihen, die er braucht, um den Zuhörer zu fesseln.

Mit ihrer kräftigen und doch so überaus sensiblen Stimme sowie ihrem so herzerweichend schönen, goldenen Timbre bleibt die schwedische Sängerin weder den verinnerlichten Gefühlen noch der leidenschaftlichen Dramatik etwas schuldig. In Aadland hat sie einen Dirigenten, der ihre Stimme trägt, der mit ihr atmet und der selber die Musik von innen heraus expressiv werden lässt. Deshalb gelingen ihm auch die beiden Lyrischen Stücke op. 68 so wunderbar einfühlsam.

Ganz bewegend ist ebenfalls ‘Der Bergentrückte’ (auch ‘Der Einsame’ genannt), den Tom Erik Lie gefühlvoll und mit angenehmer Stimme singt.

Kein Zweifel mit dieser CD setzt Audite seinem Grieg-Zyklus die Krone auf.

This final CD in Audite’s Grieg series has a lot of well performed content, yet the highlight is the cycle of Six Orchestral Songs, beautifully and movingly sung by Camilla Tilling, whose voice is perfectly supported by the orchestra.