Greig Holberg Suite

Mesmerising playing from a young pianist who captures the essence of Grieg’s genius

View record and artist details

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Edvard Grieg

Genre:

Instrumental

Label: Skarbo

Magazine Review Date: 9/2008

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

Stereo
DDD

Catalogue Number: DSK1079

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
Lyric Pieces, Book 1	Edvard Grieg, Composer Daniel Propper, Piano Edvard Grieg, Composer
Lyric Pieces, Book 2	Edvard Grieg, Composer Daniel Propper, Piano Edvard Grieg, Composer
Lyric Pieces, Book 3	Edvard Grieg, Composer Daniel Propper, Piano Edvard Grieg, Composer
Lyric Pieces, Book 4	Edvard Grieg, Composer Daniel Propper, Piano Edvard Grieg, Composer

Composer or Director: Edvard Grieg

Genre:

Instrumental

Label: Quartz

Magazine Review Date: 9/2008

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

Stereo

Catalogue Number: QTZ2061

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
Holberg Suite, Movement: Praeludium	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
Holberg Suite, Movement: Sarabande	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
Holberg Suite, Movement: Gavotte	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
Holberg Suite, Movement: Air	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
Holberg Suite, Movement: Rigaudon	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
(6) Poetic tone-pictures, Movement: Allegro ma non troppo	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
(6) Poetic tone-pictures, Movement: Allegro cantabile	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
(6) Poetic tone-pictures, Movement: Con moto	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
(6) Poetic tone-pictures, Movement: Andante con sentimento	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
(6) Poetic tone-pictures, Movement: Allegro moderato	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
(6) Poetic tone-pictures, Movement: ALlegro scherzando	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
Lyric Pieces, Book 6, Movement: No. 2, Gade	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
Lyric Pieces, Book 3, Movement: No. 6, To the Spring (An den Frühling)	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
Lyric Pieces, Book 7, Movement: No. 4, Brooklet (Baekken)	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
Lyric Pieces, Book 9, Movement: No. 3, At your feet (For dine födder)	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
Lyric Pieces, Book 3, Movement: No. 2, Lonely wanderer (Einsamer Wanderer)	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
Lyric Pieces, Book 4, Movement: No. 4, Norwegian dance (Halling)	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
Lyric Pieces, Book 4, Movement: No. 2, Album leaf	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
Lyric Pieces, Book 5, Movement: No. 3, March of the Trolls (Troldtog)	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
Lyric Pieces, Book 5, Movement: No. 5, Scherzo	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
Lyric Pieces, Book 6, Movement: No. 6, Homesickness (Heimweh)	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
Lyric Pieces, Book 8, Movement: No. 6, Wedding day at Troldhaugen (Bryllupsdag pagn)	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano
Lyric Pieces, Book 6, Movement: No. 1, Vanished days (Entschwundene)	Edvard Grieg, Composer Edvard Grieg, Composer Katya Apekisheva, Piano

Author: Bryce Morrison

Let me put my cards on the table and say that Katya Apekisheva is a young pianist who has already achieved artistic greatness. Not even Gilels, in his legendary DG Grieg recital, played more magically or, astonishingly, with greater finesse. How thrilled Irina Zaritskaya, Apekisheva’s teacher and my much-missed jury colleague, would have been if she had lived to hear the fruit of her work with this profoundly gifted artist. A sonority of beguiling warmth and refinement and a rare poetic empathy quickly make you abandon paper and pencil and listen mesmerised as Apekisheva captures the very essence of Grieg’s genius. Here, in her mixed programme, she tells you with an often painfully beautiful and unforced eloquence of how Grieg’s romantic temperament was easily clouded by depression and unease, of the way, for example in “Homesickness” and “Vanished Days”, a heartbreaking state of mind is only temporarily modified by memories of happier times. In the Aria from the Holberg Suite she is deeply sensitive to the way Grieg’s love and respect for the 18th century is coloured by a near-Franckian chromaticism and dark introspection. These works and everything else on this beautifully recorded album suggest an artistic fervour and commitment given to very few in any generation.

The sense of the Lyric Pieces as Grieg’s confessional diary is everywhere in Apekisheva’s recital, an inwardness and vision less evident in Daniel Propper’s bracing recording of four books of the Lyric Pieces. Nimble-fingered and musicianly, this Swedish-Viennese pianist, who now makes his home in Paris, shows Grieg’s art evolving from simple beginnings into a world of increasing complexity and harmonic richness. His “Little Bird” (from Op 43) blithely chirrups in a manner far removed from Messiaen’s more spiritual feathered friends, and his way with “Erotic” from the same book achieves a fine sense of how outward contentment abruptly changes to emotional instability. In “Butterfly” he hardly matches Eileen Joyce’s incomparable nuance and vivacity (Testament), yet these finely recorded performances are an admirable antidote to all possible sentimentality.

Grieg Lyric Pieces (selection)

Lyric Pieces, Book 1

Lyric Pieces, Book 2

Lyric Pieces, Book 3

Lyric Pieces, Book 4

GRIEG Holberg Suite

Holberg Suite, Movement: Praeludium

Holberg Suite, Movement: Sarabande

Holberg Suite, Movement: Gavotte

Holberg Suite, Movement: Air

Holberg Suite, Movement: Rigaudon

(6) Poetic tone-pictures, Movement: Allegro ma non troppo

(6) Poetic tone-pictures, Movement: Allegro cantabile

(6) Poetic tone-pictures, Movement: Con moto

(6) Poetic tone-pictures, Movement: Andante con sentimento

(6) Poetic tone-pictures, Movement: Allegro moderato

(6) Poetic tone-pictures, Movement: ALlegro scherzando

Lyric Pieces, Book 6, Movement: No. 2, Gade

Lyric Pieces, Book 3, Movement: No. 6, To the Spring (An den Frühling)

Lyric Pieces, Book 7, Movement: No. 4, Brooklet (Baekken)

Lyric Pieces, Book 9, Movement: No. 3, At your feet (For dine födder)

Lyric Pieces, Book 3, Movement: No. 2, Lonely wanderer (Einsamer Wanderer)

Lyric Pieces, Book 4, Movement: No. 4, Norwegian dance (Halling)

Lyric Pieces, Book 4, Movement: No. 2, Album leaf

Lyric Pieces, Book 5, Movement: No. 3, March of the Trolls (Troldtog)

Lyric Pieces, Book 5, Movement: No. 5, Scherzo

Lyric Pieces, Book 6, Movement: No. 6, Homesickness (Heimweh)

Lyric Pieces, Book 8, Movement: No. 6, Wedding day at Troldhaugen (Bryllupsdag pagn)

Lyric Pieces, Book 6, Movement: No. 1, Vanished days (Entschwundene)

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