Grieg: Orchestral Works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Edvard Grieg
Label: Philips
Magazine Review Date: 12/1987
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 74
Catalogue Number: 420 081-2PH
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Peer Gynt, Movement: Prelude (Abduction and Ingrid's Lament) |
Edvard Grieg, Composer
Edvard Grieg, Composer English Chamber Orchestra Raymond Leppard, Conductor |
| Peer Gynt, Movement: In the Hall of the Mountain King |
Edvard Grieg, Composer
Edvard Grieg, Composer English Chamber Orchestra Raymond Leppard, Conductor |
| Peer Gynt, Movement: Death of Aase |
Edvard Grieg, Composer
Edvard Grieg, Composer English Chamber Orchestra Raymond Leppard, Conductor |
| Peer Gynt, Movement: Prelude (Morning) |
Edvard Grieg, Composer
Edvard Grieg, Composer English Chamber Orchestra Raymond Leppard, Conductor |
| Peer Gynt, Movement: Arab Dance |
Edvard Grieg, Composer
Edvard Grieg, Composer English Chamber Orchestra Raymond Leppard, Conductor |
| Peer Gynt, Movement: Anitra's Dance |
Edvard Grieg, Composer
Edvard Grieg, Composer English Chamber Orchestra Raymond Leppard, Conductor |
| Peer Gynt, Movement: Solvejg's Song |
Edvard Grieg, Composer
Edvard Grieg, Composer English Chamber Orchestra Raymond Leppard, Conductor |
| (4) Norwegian Dances |
Edvard Grieg, Composer
Edvard Grieg, Composer English Chamber Orchestra Raymond Leppard, Conductor |
| Old Norwegian Romance with Variations |
Edvard Grieg, Composer
Edvard Grieg, Composer Philharmonia Orchestra Raymond Leppard, Conductor |
Author:
The Peer Gynt suites recieve the largest billing on this disc, but although there's nothing exactly wrong with Leppard's conducting of them—for it is perfectly idiomatic—he shows a certain lack of vitality, poetry and drama. For one thing the ECO is too small for Grieg's music, which needs a bigger body of strings to make a full effect. Nor is the recording outstanding, though it is unexceptionable. By contrast Karajan on DG shows a good deal of imagination and the bPO play marvellously in a superb digital recording, with the strings sounding gloriously seductive. Karajan's coupling is Sibelius's incidental music for Pelleas et Melisande. Leppard's performance of the Norwegian Dances rather suffers from similar defects. In the first dance, for instance, he settles into a rather comfortable square-as-a-box jogtrot, but then if you turn to Jarvi on DG it is a different world, since he inflects the music with rare imagination and skill. It has been a great pleasure to renew acquaintance with Jarvi's disc, which also includes the Lyric Suite and the Symphonic Dances.
Leppard's version of the Old Norwegian Romance has no competition, and fortunately this work receives a better performance. The Philharmonia Orchestra have a more suitable depth of tone, with a warm string sound, and the recording is more recent with greater atmosphere. Leppard also shows more life and imagination. So this disc is rather a mixed success.'
Leppard's version of the Old Norwegian Romance has no competition, and fortunately this work receives a better performance. The Philharmonia Orchestra have a more suitable depth of tone, with a warm string sound, and the recording is more recent with greater atmosphere. Leppard also shows more life and imagination. So this disc is rather a mixed success.'
Grieg: Orchestral Works
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