Pining For The Fjords

This edition of the Panorama series, where DG plunder their back catalogue to compile budget priced double cd's with a linked theme, features the music of Grieg. For the casual collector, it could be said to include all the grieg you would ever need. All of the "greatest hits" are here; the two Peer Gynt suites, the Piano Concerto, the Holberg Suite, the Lyric Pieces and the Norwegian Dances, together with the maybe lesser known Sigurd Jorsalfar : Three Pieces For Orchestra. Disk one is performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker under Herbert von Karajan, with the Peer Gynt, Holberg and Sigurd Jorsalfar. These all have literary connections with Peer Gynt being incidental music written for Ibsen's play, Sigurd Jorsalfar also being incidental music for a lesser known play by Bjornson and Ludvig Holberg considered the founding father of modern Norwegian drama. All these works feature memorable tunes and skilled orchestrations but perhaps Grieg's main genius lay with his pieces for piano. The concerto ( excellently played here by Stephen Kovacevich and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Colin Davis ) is just about the most poular in the repertoire along with Tchaikovsky's first. But the lyric pieces were closest to grieg's heart and Emil Gilels is a superb advocate here. The piano works are on disk two which concludes with Neeme Jarvi and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra playing the Norwegian dances. Those unfamiliar with classical music will undoubtedly recognise so much of this music and the compilation highlights Grieg's understated gifts.