Grieg: Norwegian Dances (4), Op. 35

It makes good sense for the young Russian piano virtuoso Miroslav Kultyshev to follow up his ORFEO recording of Liszt’s ' Études d’exécution transcendante' with Grieg’s A minor Piano Concerto op. 16, a work with which the Norwegian composer took an important first step on the musical stage of his time. Writers are fond of recalling how in 1869, when he was in Rome on a scholarship, Grieg showed the piece to Liszt, who immediately sight-read it and expressed his enthusiasm for the young composer’s abilities and ideas. By this date the work had in fact already enjoyed its triumphant world première in Copenhagen, and since then it has been a permanent presence in the world’s great concert halls.

With his eloquent playing, Miroslav Kultyshev brings out Grieg’s debt to Robert Schumann, notably in the chordal descent of the opening bars in the piano part and the cantabile development of the musical argument. But he also highlights the elements of Norwegian folk music that are so typical of Grieg, especially in the final movement. Miroslav Kultyshev is sympathetically partnered by the North German Radio Philharmonic under its Norwegian principal conductor, Eivind Gullberg Jensen. Together, they continue their voyage of exploration of Grieg’s orchestral output in the form of his 'Lyric Suite' op. 54, four splendid atmospheric portraits extending from the pastoral 'Shepherd Boy' to the grotesque 'March of the Dwarves'. This is the other side of the coin of late Romanticism with its chiaroscuro contrasts that we find not least in Grieg’s incidental music to 'Peer Gynt'. Three of Grieg’s 'Norwegian Dances' op. 35 were played during a production of this Norwegian national drama that took place during the composer’s lifetime, and it is these that round off ORFEO’s all-Grieg programme.

Eivind Gullberg Jensen has been making a name for himself, in London at theENO [2009 Jenufa]; at the Norwegian Opera and recently making his debuts with the Vienna Symphony and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. He has studied with the great Jorma Panula, Leopold Hager, David Zinman and Kurt Masur. Definitely one to watch.

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.

This third volume of ‘Scandinavian Classics’ interpreted by the Danish State Radio Symphony Orchestra in recordings made between 1949-1953 is devoted to music from Norway and Finland. This fine release represents recordings from one of the most admired radio orchestras in Western Europe.

Grieg is not a composer whom one associates particularly with Sir John Barbirolli, but of his complete sympathy with it there has never been any doubt. In October 1933 Barbirolli and Backhaus were recording the Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor together.

The time came for a test of the slow movement, which opens with a beautiful theme for muted strings, and when Backhaus was due to come in he looked up from the piano and said: “What a pity the piano has to come in ans spoil that! Wasn’t it charming!” In 1957 Barbirolli returned to Grieg and recorded the Symphonic Dances for Pye and in 1969 he recorded twelve movements from the Peer Gynt music for EMI.

Barbirolli recorded the Norwegian Dances, Lyric Suite and Homage March from 'Sigurd Jorsalfor' for EMI at the Abbey Road Studios August 1969 and May 1970. The Symphonic Dances were recorded at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester for Pye on 9 and 10 August 1957.