The generously-filled John Ogdon reissue will be welcomed by his friends—and no doubt by many others too since the Grieg and Schumann Concertos, even if not nowadays the Franck Symphonic Variations, are among the world's favourites. But bad marks to EMI for an all too scanty accompanying leaflet merely advertising other Laser issues. Those too young to have heard the Ogdon story surely deserve a brief biographical appreciation, and at least a few words about the music itself. Of the three performances I enjoyed the Grieg most—for musical commitment no less than the kind of piano-playing that helped to win Ogdon a shared first prize at Moscow's Tchaikovsky Competition in 1962. True, the first movement might here and there be thought a little over-driven, but the Adagio is most affectionately timed and phrased, and so is that nostalgic dream interlude in the course of the highly spirited finale. This work, like the Schumann, was recorded at the end of 1971 with the New Philharmonia Orchestra, who under Paavo Berglund play very eloquently in both, and sound remarkably true to life on this remastered CD. Ogdon himself in the Schumann is commendably un-mannered, though I thought the first two movements could have taken inflexion of a more intimately personal kind. The Franck Variations were recorded nine years earlier, when Ogdon was still only 24. Here the sound of the Philharmonia Orchestra no less than the keyboard itself slightly betrays its age, though I still enjoyed the performance for the way Barbirolli balances and integrates the two so that your ear is always where it should be.
In the rival LaserLight Grieg, Jeno Jando's piano is more forwardly placed—not always to the orchestra's advantage, especially in one or two leading instrumental solos. In climaxes, too, the keyboard tone sounds a bit clangy and shallow. Taking two minutes longer over the first movement than Ogdon, Jando luxuriates in its romanticism with much more elasticity. The Adagio also finds him ardent in emotional response. But for a Hungarian I thought him surprisingly deliberate in the finale (half a minute longer than Ogdon's). Planned as a Grieg anthology, this disc is completed by the two Peer Gynt Suites, both expressively played by the Budapest Philharmonic and the Vienna Symphony under Janos Sandor and Yuri Ahronovitch respectively, though as sound per se I preferred the more luminous reproduction enjoyed by the Viennese contenders.'