Grieg: Lyric Pieces Op. 43: No. 5 - Erotikon (Erotikk, Love-Poem)

“Underrated, like most of Bloch's music, they are played here with aristocratic dignity by Emmanuelle Bertrand.” The Guardian

“The enthusiastic playing of Bertrand and Amoyel captures Saint-Saëns’ characteristic youthful vigour and gleeful virtuosity.” Classic FM Magazine

On this disc, Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra play string works by Edvard Grieg.

The ACO perform perennial favourites such as the Holberg Suite and the two Elegiac Melodies, Grieg’s own orchestrations of two of his best-loved songs: Last Spring and The Wounded Heart.

The programme also includes Richard Tognetti’s adaptation of String Quartet No.1 and the ravishingly lyrical piano composition Erotikk from the composer’s celebrated collection of Lyric Pieces.

Previous recordings with Tognetti and the ACO on BIS including Mozart’s violin concerti (BISSACD1754 and BISSACD1755), have been met with critical acclaim: Gramophone’s described the team as ‘an outstanding band’ with ‘a keen individual and collective feel for style and character’, and The Observer praised their ‘gloriously exciting, tangy edged, alert and playful sound.’

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.

Julius Drake is renowned as one of the best accompanists working today and has chosen the ATMA label to record his first solo CD. He has conceived this recording as a personal journal and performs selections from Brahms’ Intermezzi, Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte and Schubert’s Moments musicaux, among others.

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In 2007, conductor Rolf Gupta gave the first Norwegian performance of Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor with the legendary Australian pianist Percy Grainger as the posthumous soloist. On this recording the orchestra accompanies Grainger’s original interpretation of the concerto, also included are a handful of Grieg’s Lyric pieces performed by the composer himself and brought to live by modern technology. Astonishingly, these performances have not been available in any format until now.

The Lyric Pieces by Edvard Grieg have long formed part of standard repertoire for musical recitals in the home; they were also excellent encores when pianists wished to thank their audience with a poetic gesture. In this recording, Hideyo Harada recalls the important tradition of these ‘songs without words’ to memory. In the groups of pieces as well as in each piece itself, Hideyo Harada maintains the dramatic tension which is the heart of Romantic musical poetry. Each piece is self-consistent and logical, clearly formed and yet with its own characteristics and with a quasi-visual force of presence.

"a thoroughly convincing and satisfying recital. Harada certainly has the virtuoso technique to accomplish it. Her poise, balance, and articulation are essentially flawless, and her sheer speed is often quite breathtaking.” Allmusic.com