The Australian Chamber Orchestra is renowned for its crisp, clean playing, superb ensemble and intonation, and vivacious style. The partnership with lead violin Richard Tognetti has yielded some impressive results and, following their two-disc survey of Mozart’s violin concertos (2/11, A/11), orchestra and conductor have looked still further north, to Grieg. Their programme mixes original compositions for string orchestra with two artful transcriptions by Tognetti himself.

It is fascinating to hear Grieg’s quite hefty G minor String Quartet of 1878 played by small orchestral forces (the ACO are 17 in number), especially set alongside From Holberg’s Time (1884), more usually played by fuller string ensembles. As Malcolm MacDonald notes in the booklet, Grieg’s writing for the original instruments transfers well to the weightier medium, for instance in the vibrant Scherzo, the music less conversational in manner than many late-Romantic quartets. And yet the result does not strike me as a symphony for strings, retaining something of the intimacy of its source.

Tognetti’s other arrangement is of the famous (and possibly misleadingly named) ‘Erotikk’, from the Lyric Pieces, Book 3. The treatment of Grieg’s piano piece (love, rather than eroticism, is its subject: Grieg was no Scriabin!) is a little over-ripe, leaving less to the imagination than it deserves. No quibbles about the execution, though, of this or any of its companion pieces. The enchanting Elegiac Melodies are beautifully done, as is Holberg, which dances and entrances in equal measure. Both latter works have dozens of rivals but, while one might find equally fine renditions, I doubt there are many better ones. Excellent sound, as usual from this label.