Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46

Kenneth Alwyn was a principal conductor of the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden where he shared the rostrum with such luminaries working with the company at that time as Malcolm Sargent, Ernest Ansermet, Arthur Bliss, William Walton, Hans Werner Henze and Benjamin Britten the latter nominated him as conductor of the original production of The Prince of the Pagodas. In 1958 he was invited by John Culshaw – at short notice – to make Decca’s first stereo recording to launch their new SXL series. Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, which, issued that same year (alongside other popular Tchaikovsky orchestral works) went on to become a bestseller. The next year he was invited back to the studio to make two further records from which his Grieg Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 (with one of the most beautifully-shaped accounts of ‘Morning mood’ to be committed to disc) as well as a selection of Rossini Overtures now appear on CD for the first time. The release was instigated by Alwyn himself and he provides the colourful notes for this release.

Edvard Grieg wanted to give Norway its unique voice within European concert repertoire, and he did that with songs, piano pieces, and particularly with his symphonic works, to be released by Audite in a 5-volume complete recording with Eivind Aadland and the WDR Symphony Orchestra.

This first SACD presents Grieg’s principal collections: his four Symphonic Dances of 1898, where the composer draws on his experiences as a conductor of the leading European orchestras; and his two suites from the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen’s drama Peer Gynt, the story of the “Nordic Faust” which inspired Grieg to compose a sonic panorama of the Norwegian character: from the melancholy song of the abandoned Solveig to the furious chase in the Hall of the Mountain King.

Eivind Aadland’s roots in the Norwegian folk tradition audibly influence his interpretations. He comes from a family where folk music played an important role and as a child he came into intensive contact with Grieg’s music. Aadland was chief conductor and artistic director of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra from 2003 until 2010 and has also worked with many other international orchestras. He initially studied the violin with Yehudi Menuhin and from 1981 until 1989 he was concert master of the Bergen Philharmonic. From 1987 until 1997 he was music director of the European Union Chamber Orchestra. He has subsequently devoted himself fully to his conducting career and studies with Jorma Panula.

Parallel to the release of the first SACD, a video will be available which will be also presented on www.audite. de. The second volume is scheduled for release in August.

The composer Edvard Grieg was at the forefront of a flourishing of creativity that took place in Scandinavian culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, alongside his contemporaries, Nielsen and Sibelius.

His imagination was particularly fired by the folk music and stories of his native Norway; it is, therefore, unsurprising that the music that resulted from this passion is some of his most popular with listeners. One such example is Peer Gynt, incidental music composed for Henrik Ibsen’s play, based on the Norwegian folk tale Per Gynt. Although the play itself met with a mixed reception, Grieg’s music, extracted and turned into two orchestral suites in 1888 and 1891, has become a staple of the concert hall – there cannot be many listeners unfamiliar with the fantastical sounds of ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ or the sublime evocation of sunrise in ‘Morning Mood’.

Grieg received his formal musical education in Germany and as a young man was advised to concentrate on symphonies. Nevertheless he felt more comfortable composing miniatures inspired by his native Norway.

Although labelled ‘Favourites’ this collection features some less familiar recordings that surely deserve to be all-time classics: Malko’s 1953 version of the Lyric Suite has been eagerly awaited as has Weldon’s

superlative recording of the Norwegian Dances. Another gem is Emmy Bettendorf’s Solveig’s Song, performed with ‘precisely such a tone as Grieg taught his wife to sing Solveig’s refrain’ (Gramophone 1929) and to complete the programme there are five extracts from Weldon’s Peer Gynt Suites, a handful of Gieseking’s Lyric Pieces and Münchinger’s Holberg Suite.

The performances on this disc, recorded between 1951 and 1957, represent Sir John Barbirolli and the Hallé in party mood – most of the pieces, at any rate, for you can’t raise much of a laugh with Valse triste or Elegiac Melodies. J.B. had a natural flair for lighter music. He adored the tunes, he admired the orchestration and craftmanship, and he relished the chance it gave him and his players to let their hair down and – why not? – show off a bit. Franz Lehár's name was first made, in 1902, with the concert waltz Gold-und-Silber (Gold and Silver) which he wrote for the Princess Metternich-Sandór’s Gold and Silver Ball. Soon it was being played everywhere, and no wonder. It marvellously captures the feel of a great ball. J.B. liked to conduct it at the Hallé Balls held in the 1950s, sometimes with a balloon tied to his baton. But he never treated the music in a cavalier fashion. He regarded it as a great piece which deserved the best from him and his players. As Richard Osborne has written in his biography of Karajan: “If all Sir John Barbirolli’s recordings were lost except that of Lehár’s Gold and Silver waltz, there would be reason enough to say ‘Now, there was a conductor’.” This performance was recorded in April 1952. J.B. recorded the waltz again in May 1957 (released on ‘Viennese Night‘ SJB1037) and also in 1966 (released on ‘Glorious John‘ SJB1999). Turina's Danzas fantásticas date from 1920 and are exactly what their title implies. The recording, in January 1952, was the first to be made commercially in the rebuilt Free Trade Hall, Manchester. Emil Waldteufel composed over 250 dances, particularly waltzes, so it’s no surprise that his Skaters’ Waltz (Les Patineurs) Opus 183, should have become one of the most famous examples of its kind, heard in many arrangements but never so effectively as in its own orchestration. Incidentally, he wrote an España in 1886 which is sometimes confused with Chabrier’s as perhaps he intended it to be! The Elegiac Melodies by Grieg are transcriptions for strings of two of the 12 songs in his Op.33. Their titles, Heart’s Wounds and Last Spring, tell us all we need to know about these poignant pieces, so magically conducted here by J.B. when he recorded them in August 1957 at the same session as the First Suite from the incidental music to Ibsen’s extraordinary play Peer Gynt.