Grieg: Orchestral Works (CD Review)

by Karl Nehring

Symphonic Dances, Op. 64; Bridal Procession from Pictures from Folk Life, Op. 19, No. 2 (arr. J. Halvorsen for orchestra); Three Orchestral Pieces from Sigurd Jorsalfar, Op. 56; Two Elegiac Melodies, Op. 34; (1880); Lyric Suite, Op. 54. Utah Symphony Orchestra; Maurice Abravanel, conductor. VOX-NX-3038CD

 

Here we have another of the recordings from the Vox vaults that have been given new life thanks to the good folks at Naxos, who have been digging out some of the old analog master tapes recorded by Elite Recordings back in the 1970s and preparing new digital masters using state-of-the-art 192 kHz/24-bit technology. As the note on the back cover proclaims, “The Elite Recordings for Vox by legendary producers Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz are considered by audiophiles to be amongst the finest sounding examples of orchestra recordings.” They have also been choosing some fine performances to resurrect, including these Tchaikovsky recordings by the late American conductor Maurice Abravanel (1903-1993). Although his name may be unfamiliar to many music lovers, his story is an interesting one and his musical achievements are noteworthy. He was born in Greece and raised in Switzerland, where his family lived in the same house as the conductor Ernest Ansermet, with whom young Maurice played four-hand piano music and was able to meet composers such as Stravinsky and Milhaud. He later studied under Kurt Weill in Berlin, then moved to Paris, where he was music director for Balanchine’s Paris Ballet for three years. 

Abravanel then moved to the United States and became the youngest ever conductor ever hired at that time by the Metropolitan Opera. In 1943, he became an American citizen, then in 1947 left New York to become the conductor of what was at the time a rather provincial orchestra in Salt Lake City, Utah. He built that orchestra into what became the Utah Symphony Orchestra, the orchestra over which he presided until his retirement for health reasons in 1979. Abravanel and his orchestra made numerous recordings for several labels, including the first complete Mahler symphony cycle by an American orchestra, for the Vanguard label, and the complete orchestral works of Tchaikovsky for Vox.

Although the Salt Lake Tabernacle was far from an ideal recording venue, its oval domed shape being highly reflective, the Elite Recordings team did their best to deaden the space, draping blankets over the seats and taking special care with microphone placement.  The end result is sonically excellent, the orchestra sounding as though it is playing in a large hall, but nothing is blurred. As for the performances, they come across as relaxed and friendly, although there are times when it feels as though the musicians are a touch undercaffeinated, especially in the Symphonic Dances, which could benefit from a more energetic approach than Abravanel takes here. Overall, however, most music listeners should find plenty to enjoy from the more than 70 minutes of Grieg’s music so warmly played and recorded on this restoration from the Vox vault. 

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 (CD review)

Also, Grieg: Holberg Suite; Mozart: Divertimento in D major. Martha Argerich, piano; Seiji Ozawa, Mito Chamber Orchestra. Decca 485 0592.

By John J. Puccio

You’ve got a world-class pianist, Martha Argerich. You’ve got a world-class conductor, Seiji Ozawa. You’ve got world-class music, Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto. And you probably have a world-class ensemble, the Mito Chamber Orchestra, although I wasn’t familiar with them. Whatever, it adds up to a world-class performance.

Beethoven wrote his Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major between 1787 and 1789, and then revised it before its publication in 1801. Beethoven was the soloist at the concerto’s première in 1895, his debut performance, and he hoped both the concerto and the performance would help him make a name for himself. Beethoven would later say that he didn’t consider the First or Second Piano Concertos among his best work, and they do owe a lot to the earlier classical styles of Haydn and Mozart. Still, they have a buoyant charm that audiences find hard to resist, especially the Second Concerto’s playful finale.

I’m happy to say that throughout this album neither Ms. Argerich nor Maestro Ozawa seems to have lost any of their youthful spark. Even though tempos are unhurried, they are never sluggish. Far from it, at moderate speeds their playing is vibrant and joyful. The central Adagio is appropriately serene, contemplative, and hushed, with both the soloist and the orchestra playing most sensitively. In the lighthearted final movement, Ms. Argerich could be twenty again. She hasn’t lost a beat. None of this slowing down with maturity business for her. It’s a delightfully lively rendition of the music.

Martha Argerich

The second work on the program is the brief Allegro movement from Mozart’s Divertimento in D major (1772). Mozart wrote it for string quartet but later transcribed it for string orchestra, which we have here. A booklet note tells us that the recording was a surprise musical gift to Ms. Argerich “when she was bestowed the Order of the Rising Sun by the Emperor of Japan at a concert in Beppu in May 2017.” Ozawa affords it a lithe, comfortable, and affecting reading.

The program concludes with the Holberg Suite by Danish-Norwegian composer and pianist Edvard Grieg; it’s music he wrote in 1884 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the playwright Ludvig Holberg. Grieg’s official title for the piece is actually the rather cumbersome From Holberg’s Time: Suite in the Olden Style, which isn’t exactly catchy. It’s a series of movements that Grieg originally wrote for piano but later adapted for string orchestra, which Ozawa and company play. In the work’s five movements, an introduction and four dances, Grieg tried his best to represent the music of Holberg’s era some 150 years earlier. Even if the result is not exactly a Peer Gynt suite, it has its moments, reminding one of a kind of a nineteenth-century Romanticized take on early eighteenth-century music. Ozawa and his players approach it with dignity and refinement, giving the final movement a jolly good turn.

Producer Dominic Fyfe and engineer Jonathan Stokes recorded the music at Art Tower Mito, Mito City Ibaraki, Japan in May 2017 and May 2019. The sound in the Beethoven is classic Decca: clear and well defined, a touch metallic, dynamic, a little close, and somewhat flat. For a comparison, I put on Stephan Kovacivich’s 1974 recording for Philips and found it warmer, better imaged, and more dimensional. Nevertheless, anyone who has listened to and enjoyed Decca recordings over the years will find this one pretty much in the ballpark. The two orchestral pieces--Mozart and Grieg--sounded more natural to me, rounder and sweeter, with only a few instances of hardness or brightness.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click below:

Favourite Piano Concertos, Vol. 2 (CD review)

Piano concertos by Grieg, Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Addinsell. Stephen Kovacevich, piano; Sir Colin Davis, BBC Symphony Orchestra. Martha Argerich, piano; Kyrill Kondrashin, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. Misha Dichter, piano; Sir Neville Marriner, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Philips Duo 289 462 182-2 (2-CD set)

I have often written on this site about fabulous buys, bargains among bargains, things like the Beethoven Fifth and Seventh Symphonies with Carlos Kleiber on a single DG Originals or the Dvorak Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Symphonies with Sir Colin Davis in a Philips Duo set, each of which packages two or three great performances on one or two mid-priced discs. Well, this particular Philips Duo, issued by the company in the late Nineties, may have even them beat.

Of the five concertos on the two discs, there are three works--the Grieg, Schumann, and Addinsell--that are number-one choices in my book. And the other two recordings--the Brahms and Tchaikovsky--are among a handful of my top choices. In fact, I have been recommending most of these items for years. Here, they all come for the cost of a single mid-priced set. Incredible.

The Grieg and Schumann concertos with Stephen Kovacevich are outstanding, and until this release they were available only at full price. The sound is slightly warmer than necessary for good definition, but it is more than acceptable.

Steven Kovacevich

The Brahms, also from Kovacevich, is as powerful and lyrical as one could ask for. I believe it even beats Kovacevich's later EMI recording in performance, if not in sound, which is only slightly less warm and soft than the aforementioned Grieg and Schumann. Second only to Gilels on DG, Kovacevich's Brahms is the one to own, and now you can have it along with four other great performances.

Martha Argerich's Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto is probably a first-choice for many people. I still think her earlier account on DG is more satisfying, as is Cliburn's on RCA, but there is no doubting that this live Philips performance is more energetic than the others. And it's pretty well recorded, too, despite its being live.

Finally, the little, one-movement Warsaw Concerto from Richard Addinsell, composed for the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight, has seldom gotten such good treatment as this one from pianist Misha Dichter and Sir Neville Marriner, and the sound here is the best of any in the set.

All of the recordings derive from the Seventies and Eighties, and all of them have already withstood the test of time. This particular incarnation should have already won them some new fans, and I hope it continues to do so.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click below:

Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites 1 & 2 (SACD review)

Also, Four Norwegian Dances. Raymond Leppard, English Chamber Orchestra. Pentatone PTC 5186 231.

For many years now, some of my favorite recordings of Grieg's music for Peer Gynt have been those of Oivin Fjeldstad with the London Symphony Orchestra (Decca, Classic CD, and other labels), Sir Thomas Beecham with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (EMI/Warner or Hi-Q), and the one under consideration here, Raymond Leppard's 1975 album of suites recently remastered on SACD by Pentatone.

People today probably know Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) best for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt as well as for the Piano Concerto, although my guess is that listeners familiar with Peer Gynt know it from one or the other of the concert suites rather than the complete incidental music. Here, we get both suites, but if you want the complete score, you'll have to go elsewhere, to Per Dreier and the LSO (Unicorn), perhaps, or Neeme Jarvi and the Gothenburg Symphony (DG).

Anyway, the suites are enough for most folks, and, as I say, Leppard's handling of them is as good any. Grieg himself extracted the two suites from the complete score, but nobody published the original score until 1908, a year after the composer's death. So maybe that's why we know the suites better than the complete music. In any case, the suites contain all of the most-popular music from the score, four entries in each suite: "Morning Mood," "Aase's Death," "Anitra's Dance," and "In the Hall of the Mountain King"; then "The Abduction," "Arabian Dance," "Peer Gynt's Return," and "Solveig's Song."

Leppard's way with this material is always of the most refined quality. He never over dramatizes the music or over glamorizes it. Instead, he lets each movement unfold at a natural pace, using nuanced pauses and contrasts to underline the pictorial characteristics of the score. Leppard always has an eye toward atmosphere rather than pure theatricality; so, yes, there are other more exciting versions of this music you can find, but none as thoughtful.

Raymond Leppard

As a coupling, Pentatone offer Grieg's Four Norwegian Dances, also nicely done up by Leppard and his players. Note, though, that the latter Philips disc also includes these items, plus an additional twenty-four minute selection from Grieg's Old Norwegian Romance, Op. 51, recorded by Leppard half dozen years later with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Apparently, Pentatone decided that the material on the original disc was enough, or perhaps the later recording wasn't in surround sound.

Philips originally recorded the album in multichannel at the Walthamstow Town Hall, London, in November 1975, but released it only in two-channel stereo. Polyhymnia International B.V. remastered the recording for Pentatone Remastered Classics in December 2015 for hybrid stereo/multichannel playback. As always, if you have an SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc) player, you can play either the two-channel or multichannel formats in SACD and if you have only a regular CD player, you can play the regular two-channel CD layer. I listened in two-channel SACD.

The recording provides probably still the best sound you can obtain in this music. The microphone placement gives us just the right amount of space between the instruments to create the illusion of a small orchestra in front of us in a large hall, with just the right amount of width and depth. What's more, the warmth of the acoustic heightens the illusion, without losing too much detail and definition; the bass is taut and deep; and the dynamics are strong.

Since I also had on hand the Philips disc of this same recording, I put it into the regular CD player and compared it side-by-side with the SACD 2-channel layer of the newer remaster. After some fiddling with level balances, it was pretty hard to tell the difference. While the SACD was perhaps a tad smoother and fuller overall, it could have been my imagination. However, since the Philips disc may prove hard to come by now that Philips have folded shop, the point may be moot. The Pentatone is a good listen.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click below:

Grieg: Piano Concerto (CD review)

Also, Lyric Pieces. Javier Perianes, piano; Oramo Sakari, BBC Symphony Orchestra. Harmonia Mundi HMC 902205.

In the event you didn't know, Javier Perianes (b. 1978) is a Spanish concert pianist, who has won any number of prizes and played with many of the world's leading orchestras and conductors. Although he has done over half a dozen solo albums, he has recorded only a couple of pieces with orchestra. This disc of the Grieg Piano Concerto with Maestro Oramo Sakari and the BBC Symphony Orchestra is one of them. To be fair, however, he still goes it alone in the accompanying Lyric Pieces for solo piano.

Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) wrote his Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, in 1868, his first and only piano concerto. Odd, perhaps, given that Grieg was also a pianist. Anyway, with its wonderfully big opening moments and hints throughout of Norwegian folk music, the concerto quickly became one of the staples of the piano concerto repertoire.

The first movement opens with a famous and dramatic timpani roll, complete with cascading crescendos from the piano. Perianes captures the theatrical effect of these flourishes with energy galore, and, indeed, the whole of the first movement follows closely the excitement set out in the beginning. Tempos remain moderate; intonation is well nuanced; transitions, as into the second subject, are smooth and fluid; and Perianes seems always attentive to Grieg's designs.

The performance, in essence, is as big as they come, and Harmonia Mundi's close-up miking makes it seem all the bigger. Thus, if it's a grandiose reading you're looking for, this one is as massive and ambitious as they come. As I say, Perianes attacks the opening Allegro with vigor, practically banging the keys through the floor. And Maestro Sakari and the BBC Symphony accompany him with a flawless vitality of their own.

Javier Perianes

The second movement should be hushed and lyrical and continue to portray Grieg's ideas on the beauty of nature. Happily, Perianes balances the more robust sections of the score with an honest, gentle lyricism in these quieter parts. The middle of the first movement and this following Adagio sound lovely, and the final movement is as dashing, colorful, and beautiful as anyone could want. (Incidentally, Harmonia Mundi divides the second and third movements differently than we have come to expect, actually starting what most of us consider the final movement in the middle of the second track. The disc booklet provides no explanation.)

For a coupling, Perianes gives us eleven of Grieg's Lyric Pieces for solo piano. It is a good representative sampling of these little works, of which Grieg wrote sixty-six over a period of some forty years. Here again Perianes displays his softer, more-sensitive side, each piece sparkling. These are very Romanic, melodious works, which the pianist carefully executes with a straightforward delicacy and refinement. There is no hint of sentimentality about his playing. Still, when the occasion calls for an energetic virtuosity, as in "The March of the Trolls," he is on top of the situation. As a pianist Perianes can be both exciting and poetic, qualities that serve him well.

Producer Ann McKay and engineer Neil Pemberton recorded the Concerto live at the Barbican Centre, London in October 2014, and producer Martin Sauer and engineer Tobias Lehmann recorded the Lyric Pieces at Teldex Studio Berlin in June 2014. As with most live recordings, the engineers miked the concerto quite close up, especially the piano, which looms very large, practically in one's face. The orchestra, too, seems much too close, making for excellent detail and impact at the expense of its picking up some midrange brightness and edge. Fortunately, the producers edited out any applause, and audience noise is practically nil. Still, one gets a rather one-dimensional presentation, with good left-to-right stereo spread but almost no depth, air, or room ambience. The solo piano pieces, however, sound excellent, with a slightly more distanced perspective and more room resonance to give the instrument a greater natural warmth.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

Decca: Supreme Stereophonic Legacy (UltraHD review)

Various composers and artists. FIM UHD 088 (4-disc box set).

British Decca is one of the oldest, most-prestigious, and most-innovative record companies in the world, producing classical, popular, jazz, even country-Western recordings since the 1920's. To help celebrate Decca's accomplishments, the audiophile company FIM (First Impression Music) have put together this four-disc box set of Decca stereo recordings, remastered in FIM's 32-bit Ultra High Definition PureFlection processing. The recordings represent some of Decca's best work of the past fifty-odd years, and the remasterings reflect some of the best sound possible with today's compact-disc technology. Along with a sturdy clothbound box, a hardbound book of Decca history, and another hardbound book of production notes and disc sleeves, the set makes an attractive package for the music lover and audiophile alike. An expensive but attractive package.

FIM owner, president, and producer Winston Ma tells us in an introduction to the set that the Decca name goes back to 1914 when Barnett Samuel and Sons introduced a portable gramophone they called the Decca Dulcephone. Shortly afterwards, they renamed the company The Decca Gramophone Co. Ltd., and in 1929 sold it to Edward Lewis. It wasn't long afterward that Decca Records Ltd. became the second-largest record company in the world, calling itself at the time "The Supreme Record Company" (and, thus, the present set's "Supreme Stereophonic Legacy" title). Wilfred S. Samuel created the actual name "Decca" by combining the word "Mecca" with the initial "D" of their logo "Dulcet" (or their trademark "Dulcephone"). Samuel figured "Decca" would be a good brand name for the company because almost anybody could pronounce it in almost any language. Clearly, the idea worked and the name stuck. For a few decades in the mid twentieth century, a conflict with American Decca caused a minor problem, resulting in the parent British company calling their American product "London Records," but things have settled back to "Decca" worldwide for these past many years.

As I say, FIM selected the tracks from among some of Decca's best stereo releases. What's more, if you have already collected any of FIM's previous remasterings, you will recognize the selections from their previous work. This time, however, the FIM folks have reassembled them and rereleased them to their latest audio standards. Here's the track listing;

Volume One (UHD 089)
1. Glinka: Overture - Russlan and Ludmilla (Solti, LSO)
2. Grieg: Piano Concerto in A Minor - Movement 1 (Lupu, Previn, LSO)
3. Grieg: Piano Concerto in A Minor - Movements 2 and 3 (Lupu, Previn, LSO)
4. Granados: Intermezzo from Goyescas (Burgos, New Philharmonia)
5. Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake - Act 1, Valse (Ansermet, O. Suisse Romande)
6. Bernstein Elmer: The Magnificent Seven (Stanley Black)
7. Strauss, Johann Jr.: Voices of Spring (Boskovsky, VPO)
8. Strauss, Johann Jr.: Perpetuum Mobile (Boskovsky, VPO)
9. Loewe: "I Could Have Danced All Night" (Edmundo Ros)
10. Di Capua: "O Sole Mio" (Pavarotti)

Volume Two (UHD 090)
1. Verdi: Aida - Gloria all Egitto (Carlo Franci)
2. Albeniz: Castilla (Burgos, New Philharmonia)
3. Albeniz: Austurias (Burgos, New Philharmonia)
4. Rimsky-Korsakoff: Capriccio Espagnol (Argenta, LSO)
5. Chabrier: Espana (Argenta, LSO)
6. Mussorgsky: Night on the Bare Mountain (Solti, LSO)
7. Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina - Prelude (Solti, LSO)
8. Bernstein, Leonard: On the Waterfront, Symphonic Suite (Stanley Black)
9. Rodgers: "I Whistle a Happy Tune" (Edmundo Ros)

Volume Three (UHD 091)
1. Strauss, Richard: Also Sprach Zarathustra - Prelude (Mehta, LAPO)
2. Falla: The Three Cornered Hat - Act 1 (Ansermet, O. Suisse Romande)
3. Falla: Ritual Fire Dance (Burgos, New Philharmonia)
4. Verdi: Nabucco - Act 1, Gli arredi festivi (Carlo Franci)
5. Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake - Act 2 - Tempo di Valse (Ansermet, O. Suisse Romande)
6. Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake - Act 2 - Andante non Troppo (Ansermet, O. Suisse Romande)
7. Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake - Act 2 - Allegro Moderato (Ansermet, O. Suisse Romande)
8. Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake - Act 3 - Danse Espagnole (Ansermet, O. Suisse Romande)
9. Herold/ Lanchbery: La Fille Mal Gardee - Introduction (Lanchbery, ROHO)
10. Herold/ Lanchbery: La Fille Mal Gardee - Pas-de-Deux (Lanchbery, ROHO)
11. Strauss, Johann, Jr. and Josef: Pizzicato Polka (Boskovsky, VPO)
12. Steiner: Gone with the Wind - Tara's Theme (Stanley Black)

Volume Four (UHD 092)
1. Bruch: Scottish Fantasia, Op. 46 - Movement 1 Oistrakh, Horenstein, LSO)
2. Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante - Movement 1 (Oistrakhs, Kondrashin, MPO)
3. Mozart: Divertimento L. 136 I. - Allegro (Marriner, ASMF)
4. Mozart: Divertimento L. 136 II. - Allegro (Marriner, ASMF)
5. Mozart: Divertimento L. 136 III. - Allegro (Marriner, ASMF)
6. Mozart: Serenata Notturna K.239 I. - Marcia (Marriner, ASMF)
7. Mozart: Serenata Notturna K.239 II. - Minuet (Marriner, ASMF)
8. Mozart: Serenata Notturna K.239 III. - Rondo (Marriner, ASMF)
9. Strauss, Johann Sr: Tivoli-Rutsch Waltz (Boskovsky, VPO)
10. Strauss, Johann Jr: Blue Danube (Boskovsky, VPO)
11. Rapee: Charmaine (Mantovani)

I suppose there is some rhyme or reason behind the grouping of the selections, but what that reasoning is, I could not discern. The pieces do not appear arranged by composer or conductor or even by composition or recording date. My guess is that the set's producers merely grouped the various items according to personal fancy. In any case, the music is so good and so well recorded and remastered, one need only sit back and enjoy it. Of course, it means not being able to hear too much of one thing, so except for the Mozart it's mainly bits and pieces and short works. But it makes picking out and playing back favorite items for relatively brief listening sessions quite easy. Or you might find a favorite disc among the four and replay it time and again. Who knows.

Sir Georg Solti

In my case, having reviewed this music before from FIM, it made picking favorites easy because of familiarity but hard because I really liked them all. Nevertheless, let me comment on just a few of the set's most outstanding tracks.

Sir Georg Solti's conducting could sometimes sound hard-driven, even frenetic, but when he was on, as he was here in selections from Glinka (Russlan and Ludmilla) and Mussorgsky (Night on the Bare Mountain) with the London Symphony Orchestra, he was electrifying.

For a while (too long a while), Decca experimented with a recording technique they called "Phase 4." It employed the use of about two hundred microphones per instrument and resulted in a sound that was strongly dynamic, ultra clear, flat, forward, compartmentalized, and anything but natural. However, no one could argue that it wasn't spectacular, and that's what we get in Stanley Black's rendition of Elmer Bernstein's theme from The Magnificent Seven, recorded with the London Festival Orchestra. The recording has a clarity and impact I guarantee will impress almost any listener.

Nobody did Johann Strauss Jr.'s music as well as Willi Boskovsky, especially in his recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic, as we hear on Voices of Spring and Perpetuum Mobile. The grandness of the orchestra matches the grandness of the music, and the musical lilt is nigh-well perfect.

And so it goes, with each selection a little gem. Ataulfo Argenta's way with Rimsky-Korsakoff's Capriccio Espagnol and Emmanuel Chabrier's Espana is a joy to behold; John Lanchbery does up Herold's La Fille Mal Gardee better than anyone before or since; and Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields are as polished and precise as ever in Mozart's Divertimento and Serenata Notturna, with sound that Decca (on their Argo label) never topped. It's all a pleasure to hear.

Along with the four discs come two hardbound books measuring about 7 1/4" square. The first one contains four paper sleeves for the discs, with each disc slipped into its own static-proof jacket. Then, there are 108 glossy pages of technical information on the composers, the compositions, the original Decca recording processes, and the FIM remasterings. The second book is 264 pages long and chronicles a history of the Decca organization, its major artists, its labels, its products, and just about anything else you'd ever want to know about the company. The books strike me as well written and lavishly illustrated with black-and-white and color photographs.

Insofar as concerns the sound of FIM's remasterings, it's obviously excellent. Although, as I've mentioned, FIM had remastered and released these selections before, they went back and replicated them over again using their newest 32-bit UltraHD and PureFlection processing formats. According producer Winston Ma, this technology yields the highest degree of fidelity possible from a standard Red Book CD, so you can play the discs back on a regular CD player rather than use some exotic equipment. (OK, I know what you're thinking: If you can afford a set as costly as this one, you probably already own an exotic audio system. But that's beside the point.)

Anyway, I sat down and compared the sound of these new remasterings with the sound of many of the equivalent FIM discs I had in my library. This was fun for a few minutes until I recognized that I was hearing the same differences with every recording. The sound of the new transfers is smoother than that of the older ones. Sure, there is tremendous fidelity in both old and new, but the newer discs take some of the edge off the often brighter sound of the older ones. Not that there is anything wrong with the older transfers; they are certainly better than the original Decca releases; it's just that the new FIM product is that much easier on the ears, detailed yet ultraclean, clear, dynamic, and effortless.

Naturally, which sound one prefers may depend upon one's playback equipment. If your stereo system favors the high end, you may prefer FIM's new UltraHD masterings without question. If your system is at all soft or subdued, you might actually prefer the very slightly more forward sound of the older FIM issues. Personally, I preferred the newer sound, but without the master tapes with which to make comparisons, I have no way of knowing which transfers are the more accurate. Let's just say that if you have deep enough pockets, this "Decca: Supreme Stereophonic Legacy" box won't disappoint.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

Franck: Sonata for Violin and Piano (CD review)

Also, Grieg: Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 3; Dvorak: Romantic Pieces. Renaud Capucon, violin; Khatia Buniatishvili, piano. Erato 08256 462501 8 9.

French violinist Renaud Capucon and Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili are two relatively young and enormously talented musicians who make beautiful music together on this disc of violin sonatas from Franck, Grieg, and Dvorak. It's really quite a lovely album, the partnership of the two players producing some delightful results.

Things begin with the Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major by French composer, pianist, and organist Cesar Franck (1822-1890). Franck wrote the Sonata in his later years, 1886, dedicating it to his friend, violinist Eugene Ysaye, as a wedding gift. The four movements of the piece follow a slow-fast-slow-fast structure, with the slow sections the most memorable for me. They are sublime, and Capucon's solos are wonderfully lyrical and soaring. Ms. Buniatishvili's accompaniment, especially in the faster segments, is virtuosic, too, and they make the music come alive in contrasting contemplative and vigorous moods. Beautifully done.

Capucon and Buniatishvili

Next up is the Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 3 in C minor by Norwegian composer and pianist Edvard Grieg (1843-1907). He wrote it in 1887, some twenty years after writing his first two violin sonatas. It would be his last completed chamber work. Flawless intonation from Capucon and nuanced passage work from Buniatishvili highlight the work. After the peace and serenity of the opening Franck music, the Grieg sounds more dramatic, at least in the beginning. In fact, it's almost startlingly dramatic at this point, with the performers playing up the difference for all it's worth. But then they settle into Grieg's more sensitive and melodic material, and the music takes a daring turn into the rhapsodic. The second of the three movements is most songlike, with the violin singing its part in spirited fashion. The soloists take turns expressing the work's varied passions, the finale sounding as close to a traditional folk melody as Grieg would get.

The final item on the program is the four-movement suite called Romantic Pieces, written in 1887 by Czech composer Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904). Dvorak's four little compositions sound sweetly evocative under the guidance of Capucon and Buniatishvili, who again work wonderfully together, complementing each other's every note. Again I found the slower movements most to my liking, the performers infusing the music with a sublime attractiveness that is downright impossible to resist.

Producer Michael Fine and engineer Jin Choi recorded the album at Auditorium Campra, Conservatoire Darius Milhaud, Aix-en-Provence, France in April 2014. The two performers are playing on a large stage, miked at a moderate distance. The space is just enough to provide a strong presentation with good detail yet admit a pleasant degree of reflective hall ambience as well. The sound is smooth, warm, resonant, and mildly rounded, both artists showing to advantage in a natural-sounding acoustic.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

Masterpieces in Miniature (SACD review)

Michael Tilson Thomas, San Francisco Symphony; Yuja Wang, piano. SFS Media 821936-0060-2.

First off, I have to admit a bias: I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the San Francisco Symphony has always been my hometown orchestra, so to speak. I remember first hearing them while I was kid back in the early Fifties, a school (or Sunday school) outing to one of the symphony's annual Nutcracker specials, if memory serves me right. In any case, even though the Bay Area has a multitude of fine orchestras, I have always considered the San Francisco Symphony the king of the hill, one of the greatest orchestras ever. Maybe that's why I felt my opinion vindicated when a few years ago Gramophone magazine listed the San Francisco Symphony among the ten best orchestras in the world. Yeah, well, I could have told them that.

In Masterpieces in Miniature Maestro Michael Tilson Thomas and his orchestra present twelve short favorite pieces by twelve familiar composers, each of the pieces a polished little gem under the conductor and ensemble. Tilson Thomas imbues them with energy, subtlety, refinement, and grace as the occasion demands, and the orchestra plays them with vigor, nuance, culture, and élan always. Together, the conductor and orchestra provide a polish and sparkle to make even the most timeworn of these warhorses sound fresh again.

Since I haven't the time or the energy to comment on every piece of music on the program, I'll just mention what they are and point out a few favorites. The disc includes Henry Litolff's Scherzo from Concerto symphonique No. 4, with Yuja Wang, piano; Gustav Mahler's Blumine; Gabriel Fauré's Pavane; Claude Debussy's La Plus que lente; Franz Schubert's Entr' acte No.3 from Rosamunde; Charles Ives and Henry Brant's The Alcotts from A Concord Symphony; Sergei Rachmaninov's Vocalise; Antonin Dvorák's Legend No. 6; Jean Sibelius's Valse triste; Frederick Delius's On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring; Edvard Grieg's The Last Spring; and Leo Delibes's Cortége de Bacchus from his ballet Sylvia.

Pianist Yuja Wang gets things off to a rollicking good start in Litolff's Scherzo, taken at a pace that might have left some ensembles behind. Not here. The music comes off in a sprightly, witty fashion, and the only thing that disappointed me was that Wang doesn't appear on any more of the program's selections.

Tilson Thomas shows his skills as a seasoned Mahler interpreter in Blumine, which the composer probably wrote originally as a stand-alone piece, then later incorporated into his First Symphony, only later cut. It works best as we hear it here, vaguely melancholic and atmospheric, with a wonderful trumpet solo.

Under Tilson Thomas, Faure's Pavane flows gracefully and stylishly along; Schubert's Entr'acte is as beautiful and lyrical as one could want; Rachmaninov's Vocalise for orchestra sounds expectedly enchanting; Sibelius's Valse triste comes across appropriately sad and wistful; and Delibes's Cortege de Bacchus seems almost Elgarian, even though it predates Elgar by some years.

Anybody's recording of Delius's On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring has stiff competition from its original advocate, Sir Thomas Beecham, yet Tilson Thomas manages pretty well to convey its sensitive changes of color, expression, and inflection. Otherwise, the music can merely come off as repetitious and meandering. Despite the pleasing character and vitality of some of the other pieces on the disc, this one touched me the most with its delicate beauty.

Producer Jack Vad and engineers Roni Jiles, Gus Pollek, Dann Thompson, and Jonathon Stevens recorded all the works live at Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, California. They recorded "The Alcotts" in 96 kHz/24-bit audio in February 2010 and the rest in PCM 192 kHz/24-bit audio in September 2013 and May 2014. What's more, they recorded the music for hybrid two-channel (regular CD and SACD) and multichannel (SACD) playback from an SACD. I listened in two-channel SACD.

It's all a rather elaborate recording considering the engineers captured the resultant sound before a live audience. Fortunately, the audience is pretty quiet throughout the performances; the only offset is that the engineers had to record the orchestra somewhat closely, so we don't get quite as much sense of place, environment, or dimensionality as we might like. There is, however, just enough hall resonance to make everything sound fairly natural, with no jagged edges, forwardness, or brightness. Stereo spread is understandably wide, the dynamics and impact appear strong. The frequency response covers most of the spectrum nicely (although the top and bottom ends seem slightly rolled off), and the overall clarity is fine despite some softness in the presentation. An inevitable eruption of unnecessary applause occurs only after the final number.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

Grieg and Sibelius: Orchestral Works (CD review)

Herbert von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. DG 474 269-2 (2-disc set).

For a long while it seemed as though Herbert von Karajan would always be around. I mean, when I was a kid growing up in the Fifties, Karajan was already an established superstar. He was the leading conductor of the day when I began seriously collecting classical music in the Sixties; he was among the first to jump aboard when digital recording began in the Seventies; and he was there when Sony and Philips introduced CD's to the world in the Eighties. Now that he's gone, DG, for whom he made the bulk of his later recordings, have been reissuing everything he ever did, this collection of Grieg and Sibelius orchestral works just one in a series of two-disc compilations of his hits that DG began releasing in the early 2000's.

The album begins on disc one with music of Edvard Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 and 2; Holberg Suite; and Sigurd Jorsalfar: Three Orchestral Pieces. Disc two contains music of Jean Sibelius: Finlandia; Valse triste; The Swan of Tuonela; Pelléas et Mélisande; and Tapiola.

Listening to the first tracks on disc one, the Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 and 2, reminds one of his magic. The music is letter-perfect, luxurious, and alluring as only Karajan could make it. Every note is polished to a luster, the great Berlin orchestra sounding fabulously plush and precise. The orchestral sound alone would make Karajan the most famous conductor since Toscanini or Stokowski, but it would also create for him a few detractors as well, people who considered him a glamor boy over-embellishing the music he performed. Maybe, but it sure sounded nice.

As I say, the two discs in this collection are each devoted to one of two famous Scandinavian composers, Grieg on disc one and Sibelius on disc two. Of the two discs, I preferred the Sibelius because Karajan's way of music making seems best suited to Sibelius's larger-scale works. Grieg, on the other hand, would seem to benefit from a little more intimacy, something Karajan had trouble producing, at least here. Sibelius's Finlandia, Valse triste, and Pelleas et Melisande come off best, with great crescendos and soft whispers of sound piling forth and fairly smothering the listener with riches.

The sonics, though, are typical of DG from the late Sixties to early Eighties. There is plenty of midrange presence, good detail, strong dynamics, and wide stereo imaging; but there is little top end, little bottom end, and little sparkle. It's perfect sound for mid-fi audio systems and car radios, where it was probably most-often heard when DG first produced it.

But even digitally remastered at 96 kHz/24 bits can't improve what may not have been there in the first place. Karajan's fans won't mind, nor did I mind until I compared it to similar material on other labels. Note, for instance, the enormous difference in frequency range between Karajan's 1972 recording of the Peer Gynt music and Beecham's much earlier recording on EMI's "Great Recording of the Century," the Beecham sounding better than a lot of stuff made today. Still, it's the music that counts, and Karajan's set contains some of the man's most likable and characteristic work.

JJP

To listen to a couple of brief excerpts from this album, click here:

Grieg: Piano Concerto (CD review)

Also, Schumann: Piano Concerto. Leif Ove Andsnes; Maris Jansons, Berlin Philharmonic. Warner Classics 0724355756220.

EMI originally released this album in 2003, and now that Warner Classics have taken over the EMI catalogue you'll also find it under the Warner label. Whichever label you buy, these are fine performances, done up in fairly good, albeit live, sound.

Anyway, the perennial pairing of the Grieg and Schumann Piano Concertos will always bring joy to the hearts of music lovers, as will the thought of hearing them performed by so estimable a combination as pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, conductor Maris Jansons, and the mighty Berlin Philharmonic. The result in both concertos is quite satisfying, if not quite reaching the pinnacles of glory enjoyed by Kovacevich/Davis (Philips), Lupu/Previn (Decca), Perrahia/Davis (Sony), or Curzon/Fjeldstad (Decca). Still, close enough.

Andsnes reveals in the Grieg a performance much like the one he recorded for Virgin some years earlier, a performance more lyrical than showy. This is fine, but it tends to make the Grieg a little less bravura, a little less grand a statement than the recordings mentioned above. Nevertheless, the pianist makes up for it with the creativity and incisiveness of his playing. He is a virtuosic pianist, and the Berlin Philharmonic under Jansons is as magnificent as ever.

I found Andsnes a tad more playful in the Schumann, rendering that earlier work a bit more fun than usual. Regardless, there's no denying the power of both works in such capable hands, and, as I say, with the excellent support of the Berlin players and some highly sympathetic conducting by Jansons, Andsnes's quick, light, rhapsodic visions come across lovingly.

EMI's sound is also rather good, some of the best these pieces have enjoyed, full and detailed, if a trifle close live. Note, too, that the bass could be stronger, especially in the Schumann, and that the piano in both works appears somewhat larger than life across the sound stage. Still, these are not big issues; if you're a connoisseur of these two piano favorites, and you haven't heard Andsnes's Berlin performance, you might want to do so.

Bottom line: If you're new to these works, you may want to consider Kovacevich as a first choice, remastered on a Philips mid-priced line of classics.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 (CD review)

Also, Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor. Stewart Goodyear, piano; Stanislav Bogunia, Czech National Symphony. Steinway & Sons 30035.

What do you get when you have one of the world's hot young concert pianists playing two of the world's great Romantic piano concertos and recorded by one of the world's best recording companies? You get exactly what you would expect: a worthwhile new recording of some familiar music.

The hot young concert pianist is Canadian Stewart Goodyear, who, according to his bio, "began his training at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, received a bachelor's degree from Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and completed a Masters Degree at Juilliard School of Music in New York. Now calling New York his home, Stewart has performed with the major orchestras of the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra." Should I add, he is very good.

The two great piano pieces are the Concerto for Piano No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 by Russian composer Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) and the Concerto for Piano in A minor, Op. 16 by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907). The recording company is Steinway & Sons, whose name needs no introduction.

First up is the Tchaikovsky, finished it in 1875, and revised in 1879 and again in 1888. It's possible the composer was just overly sensitive to the criticism that came before and after the concerto's première, or possibly he didn't care for the way the first performers played the piece. Who knows. I think he'd like what Goodyear does with it.

Make no mistake: This is among the most assured, dynamic, exciting interpretations of the Tchaikovsky I've heard. Whether it conveys all of the pathos the composer intended, though, I'm not certain. It's perhaps not a recording for everyone. But for the Tchaikovsky connoisseur who has a shelf full of competing versions of the score, it makes a welcome addition.

Not only does Goodyear exercise a good deal of enthusiastic zeal in the performance, there's a wonderfully poetic quality from time to time, too. However, understand that Goodyear's style is to move forward at all times, so he doesn't always slow down to a poetic gait very often. I found myself wishing he would, because as thrilling as his reading can be, it also becomes a bit wearying after a while. Still, his finger work is so impressive, it's almost spellbinding, and he held this listener in thrall for most of the performance.

Goodyear well captures the rapture and glory of the opening movement's various harmonies and rhapsodies and does so with an elegant élan as well as a vigorous manner. His rubato is extremely expressive as he and Maestro Stanislav Bogunia vary the speeds just enough to suit the moods and needs of the artists and the music. The contrasts (some gently nuanced, others seriously open) the musicians provide in tempo, dynamics, and phrasing are generally appealing and go a long way toward selling the music.

In the second movement, again with its varying tones and feelings, Goodyear seems well attuned to the composer's flexible shifts, with most of it sounding nicely bucolic. Then the pianist dashes off with great abandon into the furious finale, once more dazzling the listener with his virtuosity. Nevertheless, as I say, I don't know that I could recommend Goodyear as a first choice in this concerto, what with pianists like Cliburn, Argerich, Giles, Wild, and others having served it so well; but certainly one should hear Goodyear's account. Who knows: It could become a personal favorite.

As a coupling, there's the Grieg Piano Concerto. Completed in 1868, it was the only piano concerto the man ever wrote. Fortunately, he made it count, and it's taken its rightful place in the piano repertoire ever since. As he did the Tchaikovsky, Goodyear attacks the Grieg with a good deal of vitality, yet never does one feel that he is rushing anything. While there is perhaps some small loss of Nordic winter in the performance, which tends to come across as more red-blooded Russian than Norwegian, there is, nevertheless, a compensating earthiness about the work's folk-dance and folk-song qualities.

It's good to hear a musician who is willing to plunge headlong into pieces of music as Goodyear does. He seems to be throwing caution to the wind and just having a good time. His enthusiasm is infectious.

Producer Milan Puklicky and engineers Stanislav Baroch and Vojtech Komarek made the recording at CNSO Studio No. 1, Prague in July 2013, and Steinway & Sons released the disc in 2014. The sound they obtained is very clear, very clean, and extremely solid. The overall effect is smooth and mildly warm, about what you would expect from a live performance. Additionally, I found it a tad close, piano and orchestra, with a slight emphasis (especially during the Tchaikovsky) on the left side of the sound stage. Impact is strong; bass, treble, and image depth are more than adequate; and midrange transparency is quite fine, without being in any way forward, bright, or edgy. A modest ambient bloom sets off the music in a most lifelike way.

JJP

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

Grieg: Piano Concerto (CD review)

Also, Symphonic Dances; In Autumn Overture. Havard Gimse, piano; Bjarte Engeset, Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Naxos 8.557279.

Naxos has always offered good value for the classical buyer’s dollar, as this album of Grieg’s music demonstrates. The performances and sound may not rank with the absolute best, but they’re close enough for most folks, I’m sure, and the seventy-one minutes of playing time provide plenty to listen to.

The opening movement of Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, a staple of the piano concerto repertoire and therefore having many alternative rivals, is famous for its dramatic opening drum roll and cascading crescendos from the piano. Pianist Havard Gimse, Maestro Bjarte Engeset, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Naxos engineers nicely capture the theatrical effect of this opening, and, indeed, the whole of the first movement follows closely the excitement set out in the beginning. Throughout the work, Gimse follows this pattern in exemplary fashion. Tempos remain moderate but flexible; intonation is nuanced; transitions, as into the second subject, sound smooth and fluid; and Gimse seems always sensitive to Grieg’s designs.

The second movement comes across wonderfully hushed and continues to portray the beauty of nature as Grieg intended. It’s in the final movement that the Concerto itself begins to suffer, as the finale has never seemed to hang together well with the rest of the piece. The last movement is like a miniature concerto unto itself, very folksy in its outer sections and sweetly quiet in its middle. But it doesn’t have much to do with anything that went before it, and neither Gimse nor conductor Engeset can do much about that. In fact, by playing up the extremes, the performers only make matters worse. Oh, well; it’s not a serious complaint.

Accompanying the Concerto is the brief tone poem “In Autumn” and the suite of folk tunes called “Symphonic Dances.” They also come off well, very colorfully and pictorially presented, although I doubt that most buyers would be attracted to the disc by anything but the Concerto.

The Naxos sound is excellent in terms of the piano tone in the Concerto, very vibrant, clean, and alive. As for the orchestral sound, it’s a little less so, both in the accompaniment to the Concerto and in the coupling. I found it a bit lean in the bass and not entirely transparent in the midrange. Still, it’s more than adequate, broad and spacious.

Finally, I should mention that as good a bargain as this Naxos release is, one can still buy the two-disc, mid-priced Philips set that includes one of the best Grieg Concerto performances of all, with Stephen Kovacevich and Colin Davis, along with piano concertos from Schumann (Kovacevich), Addinsell (Dichter), Tchaikovsky (Argerich), and Brahms (Kovacevich again), making the Philips set one of the ultimate great bargains in the history of recorded music.

To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click here:

JJP

Grieg: Peer Gynt, Incidental Music (XRCD24 review)

Sir Thomas Beecham, Beecham Choral Society, with Ilse Hollweg, soprano, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Hi-Q Records HIQXRCD2.

It wasn’t too long ago that I listened to and recommended the low-priced EMI reissue of this incidental music for Grieg’s Peer Gynt performed by Sir Thomas Beecham and his Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The recording first appeared on LP in the late Fifties, and EMI subsequently reissued it on LP, cassette tape, and CD over the years. Now we find it in yet another incarnation in the Hi-Q Records XRCD/K2 series of audiophile discs. The interpretation oozes the usual Beecham charm, long one of my favorites in this music, and the sound is obviously better than ever.

No, Beecham does not give us all of the music Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) wrote for Henrik Ibsen’s play, Peer Gynt. Beecham provides about forty-two minutes’ worth. If you want the complete incidental music, you’ll have to turn to people like Per Drier on Unicorn or Neeme Jarvi on DG. Beecham’s extended selections are more like the suites, which you can find on any number of fine recordings. What Beecham brings to the table is his characteristic twinkle, lighting up the music with enchantment and charisma aplenty. And, naturally, the extended selections include Grieg’s most-famous movements: “Wedding March,” “Ingrid’s Lament,” “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” “Morning,” “Ase’s Death,” “1st Arabian Dance,” “Solveig’s Song,” “Anitra’s Dance,” “Return of Peer Gynt” (Storm Scene), and “Wiegenlied” (“Solveig’s Lullaby”).

What the Hi-Q disc does not include are Beecham’s recordings of the Symphonic Dance, the overture In Autumn, and the Old Norwegian Folksong with Variations, which EMI later added to fill out their reissued CD. These selections did not appear on the original LP, which is all that Hi-Q offer. Given the high price of the Hi-Q product, some potential buyers may understandably be annoyed at the short, forty-one minute playing time; just think of the disc as offering quality over quantity. If you’re looking for something less expensive, I’d suggest the EMI Beecham disc, Raymond Leppard’s Philips recording of the two suites, or Oiven Fjeldstad’s Decca issue of highlights.

The sound of the Beecham recording belies its 1957 production date, when EMI made it in Studio No. 1, Abbey Road, London. Hi-Q have remastered it using JVC’s XRCD24/K2 processing, a technology I’ve described in the past that is meticulous, time consuming, and costly. It results in the best possible transfer of information from a master tape to a compact disc, but, as I say, it ain’t cheap.

As always when I have the opportunity, I put the new audiophile Hi-Q edition in one CD player and the regular-issue EMI CD in another for instant comparisons, trading out the discs from time to time to be sure I was listening to the sound of the discs and not to the sound of the players (although, to be fair, the players sound practically identical). The first thing I noticed in the comparison was that the Hi-Q disc sounded slightly smoother, with slightly better definition and separation of instruments. Next, I noticed that the Hi-Q product was slightly firmer and clearer overall; it was slightly less veiled, as though removing a fine layer of gauze from the sonics. I also noticed that the Hi-Q sound was slightly stronger in dynamic range and transient impact, with slightly more-extended highs and slightly tauter bass. By contrast, the EMI disc, already quite good, sounded slightly softer, less forceful, and less transparent. Be aware of the word “slightly” here; the differences are not night-and-day.

I noticed a touch of background noise in both masterings that is the merest shade more pronounced in the Hi-Q edition. Also, the vocals on the Hi-Q are sometimes a bit brighter, edgier, and harder-sounding. We might expect the better mastering to display more greatly any small deficiencies in the original tape, and that’s what happens. Nevertheless, these are such minor concerns, they are hardly worth mentioning in so fine an edition.

The Hi-Q packaging, too, is first-rate. The disc comes housed in a Digipak-type container, with a cardboard cover and back, bound text and pictures in the center, the CD fastened to the inside back cover. With its glossy coating and original cover art, the package couldn’t look better.

Note, however, that remastered audiophile discs are not for everyone; the differences between the sound of better masterings and pressings and the equivalent regular releases are usually so small that most people probably wouldn’t notice them. Remastered audiophile discs are for well-heeled connoisseurs attempting to squeeze the last ounce of fidelity from their stereo systems. It’s here that audiophile remastering companies such as Hi-Q, FIM, JVC, HDTT, and the like fill a need, providing the best-possible product regardless of price.

To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:


JJP

Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites (CD review)

Also, Lyric Pieces. Hakon Austbo, piano; Mark Ermler, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Brilliant Classics 94402.

Casual fans of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) probably know him best for his Piano Concerto in A minor and his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt, although my guess is that insofar as the Gynt music goes, most listeners would be more acquainted with individual selections from the Peer Gynt concert suites than with the complete material. In any case, Maestro Mark Ermler offers up the two most familiar suites on this well-filled Brilliant Classics reissue.

The Suite No. 1, Op. 46 opens with “Morning Mood,” in which Ermler develops an expansively atmospheric tone but then sort of lets it fade into banality. His rendition of the “Death of Aase” hasn’t a lot of character, either; it simply sounds mournful and slow and little else. In the “Dance of Anitra” Ermler gets the rhythms flowing sweetly enough, yet they are not particularly memorable or enlivening. Then, in “The Hall of the Mountain King” we find Ermler communicating all the right notes but in a curiously underpowered manner. To put it another way, the conductor’s handling of the first suite is rather commonplace.

The Suite No. 2, Op. 55 begins with “Ingrid’s Lament,” and it comes off as one of the highlights of Ermler’s performance, with more color than most of the other selections. The “Arabian Dance,” like the “Mountain King,” should be among the most dramatic movements in the suites, yet Ermler plays it so safely it seems again only ordinary. However, in “Peer Gynt’s Homecoming” the conductor shows a power and urgency missing most elsewhere, helped by a more robust recording quality. Finally, in “Solveig’s Song” Ermler ends the way he began--with a banal interpretation--which at least gives the whole reading a degree of symmetry.

For more vital, characterful, moving recordings of the material, the reader might consider Sir Thomas Beecham’s EMI disc or Oivin Fjeldstad’s Decca disc of excerpts, Raymond Leppard’s Philips disc of suites, or Per Dreier’s Unicorn album containing most of the incidental music.

As a coupling, Brilliant Classics offer some of the Lyric Pieces Grieg wrote for the piano between 1867 and 1901. He actually composed sixty-six such pieces, all of them simple and brief, and the Norwegian pianist Hakon Austbo has selected fifteen of them for inclusion here. I enjoyed these items more than the Peer Gynt Suites because the pianist captures and conveys their essence purely and carefully, with a gentle touch throughout. The playfulness of the “March of the Dwarves” and the “Wedding Day at Troldhaugen” and the beauty of the “Notturno” sound especially charming.

I believe it was Tring who originally recorded the Peer Gynt Suites at All Saints, Petersham, London, in 1993; and the Lyric Pieces come to us from Doopsgezinde Gemeente Deventer, the Netherlands, 2001. The orchestral sound in Gynt is nicely open, wide spread, and ultrasmooth. While there is not quite as much depth as I’d like to have heard nor as much sense of air, there is a fairly wide dynamic range and a good feeling of hall ambience. Impact and bass response are somewhat light, although “Peer Gynt’s Homecoming” comes off with authority. The piano sound in the Lyric Pieces is warm and resonant, not always perfectly defined but very comfortable.

JJP

Grieg: Peer Gynt (CD review)

Peter Mattei, Camilla Tilling, Charlotte Hellekant, soloists; Paavo Jarvi, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. Virgin Classics 7243 5 45722-2.

Of the recordings I've now heard by Paavo Jarvi, this one of Grieg's Peer Gynt finds him most at home. Indeed, it is one of the handful of finest performances of this music I have found, and it is a treat for the ears as well.

People probably know Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) best for his incidental music to the Ibsen's play Peer Gynt as well as for the Piano Concerto, although my guess is that most listeners would be more familiar with one or the other of the Peer Gynt concert suites than with the complete incidental music. In any case, it is not the complete incidental music we get here, anyway; it's an abridged version, about sixty minutes, or two-thirds, of the original ninety minutes of music. If you want the complete score, you'll have to go elsewhere, to Dreier, perhaps, on Unicorn or to father Neeme Jarvi on DG. But for the listener who wants the best possible sound and is willing to give up a little something to have most of the music on one disc, this release should fit the bill.

All of the most familiar pieces are here, from "The Hall of the Mountain King" through "The Death of Ase," "Morning Mood," "Arabian Dance," "Anitra's Dance," "Solveig's Song," to the closing "Solveig's Cradle Song," and many more, twenty of the twenty-six sections in all. The soloists--Peter Mattei, Camilla Tilling, and Charlotte Hellekant--are uniformly beautiful in execution and the two choirs--the Estonian Girls' Choir and the Estonian National Male Choir--are in equally top form. The music still doesn't seem all of a piece to me, but that is the nature of the score, accompaniment as it is to something else.

Virgin's sound, recorded in the Estonia Concert Hall, Tallinn, Estonia, is mostly excellent, perhaps a touch forward and bright in spots and not as dimensional as I'd like it to be, but pretty well balanced all the way around. Bass is adequate without being overpowering; mids are natural except in the highest regions; and treble is light and airy. This is an outstanding set in almost every way.

JJP

Grieg: Piano Concerto (SACD review)

Also, Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2. Sa Chen, piano; Lawrence Foster, Orquestra Gulbenkian. PentaTone Classics PTC 5186 458.

Despite the album listing the Grieg Concerto first on the cover and the spine, it is the Rachmaninov that begins the disc. Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) premiered his Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, in 1901, after a bout of depression that only a hypnotherapist, Dr. Nikolai Dahl, could relieve. The composer thus dedicated the work to Dr. Dahl and went on to compose his Second and Third Symphonies, Third Piano Concerto, Paganini Rhapsody, Symphonic Dances, and a load of other popular stuff. Such is the power of persuasion.

Chinese pianist Sa Chen takes the opening movement of the Rachmaninov, marked Moderato, in a most Romantic, lyrical manner, matching what most of us have come to expect from the composer's intentions. However, she doesn't try to impress the listener with any untoward heroics, while yet bringing out the virtuosic qualities of her playing. She seems to enjoy emphasizing the beauty of the Russian melodies, using perhaps a lighter touch than many of her colleagues in the work.

In the central Adagio, Sa Chen appears a bit more leisurely than I've heard, which depending on your point of view either makes the music more appropriately lovely or just plain sluggish. I found her slower-than-usual tempo slightly obscured the primary melody's line, which sort of gets lost in the beauty of the notes.

The big finale really sells the Concerto, of course, and Sa Chen shines brilliantly in it. It features one of the most popular and instantly recognizable themes in all classical music, and the pianist makes the most if it, with conductor Lawrence Foster and Lisbon's Gulbenkian Orchestra providing a fine, nonintrusive accompaniment.

The pairing of the Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, by Norwegian composer Edward Grieg (1843-1907) with the Rachmaninov is apt since many critics feel it was Grieg's work that inspired Rachmaninov. Anyway, Sa Chen takes much the same approach to this piece that she did in the Rachmaninov, bringing out the music's more lilting, more charming qualities at the expense of some of its brawnier aspects. At the risk of sounding sexist, it seems to me a gentler, more-feminine take on the Concerto than several other male pianists have recorded. Nonetheless, Sa Chen's interpretation is never without its own delights, not the least of which is her liquid-smooth delivery and polished, expressive tone.

The sound, recorded in the Grande Auditorio of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, in 2011, is warm and accommodating. Definition is a tad on the soft side, yet everything is easy and comforting on the ear without being flabby or dull. The recording nicely balances the piano with the orchestra, which we hear spread out broadly behind it. In the two-channel mode of this hybrid stereo/multichannel SACD to which I listened on a Sony SACD player, the dynamics sounded strong, sometimes even robust, with more than adequate bass and treble extension. While the PentaTone sonics may lack the ultimate transparency of several other recordings of this material (with LIM's remastering of Decca's 1973 recording of the Grieg with Radu Lupu, Andre Previn, and the London Symphony, you're in a whole other soundscape), they provide the advantage of a big, full, spacious, ambient aural presentation with luxuriant washes of sound, all of which goes a long way toward selling the music.

--JJP

Grieg and Schumann: Piano Concertos (CD review)

Stephen Kovacevich, piano; Colin Davis, BBC Symphony Orchestra.  Newton Classics 8802019.

On the list of grand, classic piano concertos, one finds fewer entries than one may think: the Beethoven "Emperor" Concerto, of course; the Tchaikovsky First, the Rachmaninov Second and Third, and the Grieg and Schumann works, to name a few that pop off my head first. The latter two concertos often seem to find themselves coupled together, probably because of their similar styles and relatively brief playing times.

Anyway, since the early Seventies I've been listening mostly to two recordings of the Grieg and Schumann concertos, one by Radu Lupu, with Andre Previn and LSO (Decca or LIM), and this one by Stephen Kovacevich, with Colin Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Lupu provides the sheer brute strength and Kovacevich adds the poetry. Philips originally recorded Kovacevich, and the company has released it on LP and CD several times. Now in 2010 we get the recording reissued by Newton Classics. It can't hurt.

To quote from the Newton Classics Web site, the company is "a Dutch based record label, founded in 2009. Its vision is to return old friends to the classical music lover, and these friends are all fantastic recordings being sourced from the vaults of major record labels. Most of the recordings which are being issued by Newton Classics have not been on the market for quite a substantial length of time, often more than ten years." Since in this case Philips have not released the Grieg and Schumann performances in quite some time, it's nice to see them back in a fresh new package. Maybe it will serve to introduce a new generation of music lovers to these treasured performances, music lovers who somehow missed them the first few times around.

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) wrote his Piano Concerto in a minor, Op. 16 in 1868, no doubt modeling it in part on Schumann's earlier concerto. After a towering introduction (which even non classical-musical listeners will recognize) on the largest scale, the first movement settles into a melding of lyricism and bravura, both of which Kovacevich handles with consummate ease. In the Adagio, the pianist is at his very best, presenting the music with a hushed, rhapsodic intensity. Then, in the playfully infectious finale with its reflections of a popular Norwegian dance tune, Kovacevich and Davis make the most of their virtuosity with a well-nigh perfect interplay of pianist and orchestra.

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) wrote his Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 in 1841, revising it in 1845 in the form we know today. It likely inspired Grieg, who, as I've said, probably based his own concerto on at least the first movement's structure. While Kovacevich plays the entire work with much grace and sensitivity, he never misses the lofty gestures. The piece doesn't have the drive of the Grieg concerto, although Kovacevich carries it out with such authority, it feels bigger and weightier than it actually is. Again, the soloist and orchestra play as one, an ideal combination.

Philips recorded the music in 1970-71, and in the company's final release of it (2006) they used a remaster in 96 kHz, 24-bit processing as part of their "Originals" series. This 2010 Newton Classics reissue appears to use the same master, although on direct comparison I noticed some minor, largely inconsequential differences. The Newton Classics disc is quite clear, clean, and vivid, with a wonderfully robust, lifelike presence. The piano is front and center, sturdily reproduced, the orchestra realistically spread out behind the soloist in a room-filling acoustic. It doesn't get much better.

JJP