Håkon Austbø’s highly regarded Grieg collection, reissued with a recent recording of the four-hands repertoire to make the most complete available set of the composer’s piano music – and, by extension, an open window on to the soul of this most poetic of Scandinavian romantics.
Edvard Grieg was a talented child pianist when the violinist Ole Bull heard him play, and straightaway recognised in him a talent deserving of nurture. While he went on to write a symphony and a few other large-scale works, Grieg found his voice most of all through the piano, and through the songs without words which he called Lyric Pieces. In themselves, these are extensions of the Schumann/Mendelssohn lineage of instrumental tone-pictures, as well as translations of the lyric impulse that made him an equally successful song-writer, especially once he had married his cousin, Nina, and found in her the singer who understood both him and his music best.
Nina also played the piano well enough to form a duo partnership with her husband. In that context we may understand the transcriptions of his orchestral Holberg and Peer Gynt suites as not merely financially expedient hackwork, done to exploit the domestic market for enjoying orchestral classics at home, but as an intimate act of devotion. In the gently tripping neobaroque dances of the Holberg Suite, as brought to life by two pianists sitting side by side, we can eavesdrop on a touching communion.
Meanwhile, the ten books of Lyric Pieces came to form a kind of diary to which Grieg returned and confided some of his most intimate and experimental thoughts through the course of his entire career. Whether evoking nature or a solitary thought or a lover’s gaze, the Lyric Pieces go straight to the heart of the matter, and often with a disarming simplicity of manner which conceals some sophistication of form and technique.
Awarding Håkon Austbø’s cycle 10/10 for both performance and engineering, Jed Distler at Classics Today remarked: ‘Austbo’s performances are consistently direct, idiomatic, and as natural as breathing... his virile and dynamically charged traversal matches Grieg’s pianism in spirit... You won’t find a better Grieg piano music bargain anywhere on the planet.’
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72: XI. Knut Luråsens Halling No. 1
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72: XII. Myllarguten’s Springar
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72: XIII. Håvar Gibøen’s Dream at the Oterholt Bridge. Springar
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72: XIV. The Goblin’s wedding procession at Vossevangen. Gangar
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72: XV. The Skuldal Bride. Gangar
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72: XVI. The Maidens of Kivledal. Springar
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72: XVII. The Maidens of Kivledal. Gangar
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Moods, Op. 73: I. Resignation
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Moods, Op. 73: II. Scherzo-Impromptu
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Moods, Op. 73: III. A Ride at Night
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Moods, Op. 73: IV. Popular Air
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Moods, Op. 73: V. Study (‘Hommage à Chopin’)
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Moods, Op. 73: VI. Students’ Serenade
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Moods, Op. 73: VII. The Mountaineer’s Song
Disk 7
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Piano Transcriptions of Songs I, Op. 41: I. Lullaby
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Piano Transcriptions of Songs I, Op. 41: II. Little Haakon
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Piano Transcriptions of Songs I, Op. 41: III. I Love Thee
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Piano Transcriptions of Songs I, Op. 41: IV. She is so White
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Piano Transcriptions of Songs I, Op. 41: V. The Princess
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Piano Transcriptions of Songs I, Op. 41: VI. To Spring
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Piano Transcriptions of Songs II, Op. 53: I. A mother’s Grief
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Piano Transcriptions of Songs II, Op. 53: II. The First Meeting
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Piano Transcriptions of Songs II, Op. 53: III. The Poet’s Heart
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Piano Transcriptions of Songs II, Op. 53: IV. Solveig’s Song
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Piano Transcriptions of Songs II, Op. 53: V. Love
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Piano Transcriptions of Songs II, Op. 53: VI. The Old Mother
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: 3 Piano Pieces, EG105: I. Allegro agitato
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: 3 Piano Pieces, EG105: II. Allegretto
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: 3 Piano Pieces, EG105: III. Allegro molto e vivace, quasi presto
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Agitato, EG106
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Funeral March in Memory of Rikard Nordraak, EG107
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Norwegian Mountain Melodies, EG108A: I. Springar
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Norwegian Mountain Melodies, EG108A: II. Lullaby
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Norwegian Mountain Melodies, EG108A: III. Springar
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Norwegian Mountain Melodies, EG108A: IV. Popular Song
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Norwegian Mountain Melodies, EG108A: V. Halling
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Norwegian Mountain Melodies, EG108A: VI. The Lad and the Lass on the Barn Floor
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Album Leaf, EG109
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: 3 Piano Pieces: I. Tempest Clouds, EG110
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: 3 Piano Pieces: II. Procession of Gnomes, EG111
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: 3 Piano Pieces: III. In the Whirl of the Dance, EG112
Disk 8
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: 4 Norwegian Dances, Op. 35: I. No. 1 in D Minor
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: 4 Norwegian Dances, Op. 35: II. No. 2 in A Major
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: 4 Norwegian Dances, Op. 35: III. No. 3 in G Major
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: 4 Norwegian Dances, Op. 35: IV. No. 4 in D Major
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: 2 Symphonic Pieces, Op. 14: I. Adagio cantabile – Più mosso – Tempo I in A-Flat Major
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: 2 Symphonic Pieces, Op. 14: II. Allegro energico in C Minor
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No .1, Op. 46: I. Morgenstemning [Morning Mood]
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No .1, Op. 46: II. Åses død [The Death of Åse]
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No .1, Op. 46: III. Anitras dans [Anitra’s Dance]
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No .1, Op. 46: IV. I Dovregubbens hall [In the Hall of the Mountain King]
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No. 2, Op. 55: I. Bruderovet. Ingrids klage [The Abduction of the Bride. Ingrid’s Lament]
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No. 2, Op. 55: II. Arabisk dans [Arabian Dance]
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No. 2, Op. 55: III. Peer Gynts hjemfart – Stormfull aften på havet [Peer Gynt’s Homecoming – Stormy Evening on the Sea]
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No. 2, Op. 55: IV. Solveigs sang [Solveig’s Song]
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No. 2, Op. 55, No. 5 Appendix: V. Dance of the Mountain King’s Daughter
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: 2 Walzer-Capricen, Op. 37: I. No. 1 in C-Sharp Minor
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: 2 Walzer-Capricen, Op. 37: II. No. 2 in E Minor
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: 2 Nordic Melodies, Op. 63: I. folketonestil [In Folk Style]. II. Kulokk og Stabbelåten [Cow-call and Peasant Dance]
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: 2 Nordic Melodies, Op. 63: I. Kulokk
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: 2 Nordic Melodies, Op. 63: II. Stabbelåten