Issued jointly on both Blu-ray Disc and Super Audio CD, this German/Swiss teacher/pupil duo’s recital is the third of an unhackneyed journey around Grieg and his influences. Previous issues looked at the Norwegian’s two-piano ‘arrangements’ of Mozart’s piano sonatas and his C minor Fantasy, and Grieg’s own original keyboard version of his Old Norwegian Romance (Vol 2 was reviewed by Ivan March, 7/09). Now Heide Görtz – a sometime pupil of Conrad Hansen – and Tina Margareta Nilssen tackle a pair of composers Grieg enjoyed duetting with, and two newly commissioned works.

After a strong, serious, rhythmically alert St Antoni Chorale – remember it’s from a hymn, not by Haydn at all – Wolfgang Plagge’s Grieg Metamorphosis, on a theme from the Op 12 Lyric Pieces, explodes across the speakers in a brilliant flurry of sound and descant-like activity. (Plagge himself is actually the producer of this whole recording.) Terje Bjørklund, a famous Norwegian jazzer now turned more classical, contributes what he calls ‘Grieg meets Bartók, Stravinsky and Arvo Pärt’, alluding to the Piano Concerto, the G minor Ballade and String Quartet, and one of the Norwegian Folk Songs. Busy fun, but on first hearings less coherent than the Plagge. A similar mood continues in Saint-Saëns’s Beethoven Variations, a work which Nina and Edvard Grieg were already playing together soon after it was written.

The SACD recording is especially clear in bringing out the colours of the individual pianos; the Brahms sounds less effective to my ears on the Blu-ray, rather heavy and over-resonant. An original and enjoyable recital, a good situator-in-context of Grieg, most playable in one go and well delivered by the duo. Don’t forget the first volumes either.