Listening to this new issue with von Otter's Gramophone Award-winning disc of Grieg songs beside me, I certainly found the better to be the enemy of the good. The two issues vary substantially as regards repertory, but there is sufficient overlap to make comparison between them wholly relevant. If you take Grieg's most famous song ''I love you'' or, from the same early Op. 5 set, ''Two brown eyes'', in every respect the DG disc surpasses the BIS. Von Otter is more lively with her words, varies her tone more frequently, is aware of every turn in the music. Forsberg is a piquant, vivid accompanist whereas Derwinger is no more, no less than correct. Finally, the recording of the DG is markedly superior, giving more presence to both artists and offering them a fuller, warmer acoustic-the difference in that respect is very marked.
Comparison between two well-known songs from Op. 25 again goes in favour of the Swedish pair, who take ''A Swan'' a good deal more slowly than their counterparts and make it quite hypnotic. The younger duo perform it quite nicely, but in a generalized, too strict way. The same is true of the lively ''With a waterlily'', where von Otter lives the perky text whereas Groop sings it fluently but without verbal pointing. She is engaged on recording all Grieg's songs, an admirable project, but perhaps not as sensible as von Otter's decision to pick and choose: after all, Grieg wasn't always as inspired as in his best settings.
Haugtussa is the exception, a marvellous cycle; at least so it seems in von Otter's airy reading. On the new CD it almost inevitably sounds more ordinary. Perhaps I am being unfair to Groop, an accomplished young singer who has studied her music with care and delivers it in a consistently thought-through way with a voice that is rich and, for the most part, pleasing to the ear. It's just the final ounce of inspiration that goes missing-that and a really adequate recording.'