Gennady Rozhdestvensky
was principal conductor at the Stockholm
Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1970s
and returned for another four-year-stint
in 1991. This coincided with Chandos
signing up the orchestra and conductor
to make a series of CDs with Nordic
music. As far as I remember this was
the first result of that collaboration,
and in most respects it was an auspicious
start. Besides the ubiquitous piano
concerto and the two Peer Gynt suites,
Grieg’s orchestral music hasn’t been
too frequently performed, either in
concert or on record. That is a pity,
since the two orchestral works on this
disc show other sides of Grieg’s genius.
The Symphonic Dances should definitely
find a place in the standard repertoire
with their lively rhythms, folk music
inspiration (much of the thematic material
is "real" folk tunes found
in Lindeman’s large collection) and
the fine orchestration. As played here
by the Stockholm Philharmonic, who really
seem to be ignited by the returning
maestro, they can’t fail to make an
impact. Rozhdestvensky has never been
one to drag a phrase unnecessarily and
that pays dividends here. He stresses
the dance elements, underlining the
rhythms and keeps things moving forward.
There is always a risk that he underplays
the poetic moments of the score. Neeme
Järvi with the Gothenburg Symphony
Orchestra, recorded back in 1986 for
DG, has a lighter touch in places, but
on the whole Rozhdestvensky’s approach
is just as valid. Bjarte Engeset on
a recent Naxos recording is less thrilling
than either of his two East European
competitors.
The six songs, orchestrated
by Grieg in the 1890s, were not as winning
as I had expected. Back in 1992, a couple
of weeks before this recording was made,
I heard these artists at a concert in
the Stockholm Concert Hall, performing
the Symphonic Dances and also these
six songs. My strongest memory of that
concert is Solveig Kringelborn. It might
be that seeing her, Nordic blond in
a traditional Norwegian folk costume,
added something to what I actually heard,
but it might just as well be that she
wasn’t on top when the recording was
made or that she was trying too hard.
Basically she has a beautiful, silvery,
lyrical voice, not very large but well
tuned and flexible. One can hear all
of these qualities on this recording
but far too often she pushes the voice
too hard, it becomes shrill. Even worse
she adopts a wide vibrato that is certainly
un-beautiful. There is also a feeling
of sameness, whatever she sings. She
doesn’t sing off the text, so to speak,
even if she articulates well in her
native language. It isn’t exactly bad
but it could have been better. She is
heard to much better advantage on a
Virgin disc, where she, accompanied
by the ever-reliable Malcolm Martineau,
sings songs by Sibelius, Rangström,
Nielsen and Grieg. It is instructive
to compare how much more naturally she
performs A Swan on that disc.
The last work on this
disc is a suite from the incidental
music to Björnson’s play Sigurd
Jorsalfar. Jorsala is actually an
old Nordic name for Jerusalem. These
three movements show that deep inside
Grieg was hiding a dramatic vein and
it doesn’t seem impossible that he could
have developed that vein into writing
an opera. The Prelude could be a spectacular
concert opener, the intermezzo starts
inwardly but has a fast middle section,
and the Homage March has a really lovely
passage for four cellos, introducing
the main theme which then builds up
magnificently. Here the Stockholm brass
players are having a field day. If you
have regarded Grieg mainly as a national
romantic miniaturist, this disc should
be an eye-opener and a corrective. It
can be unhesitatingly recommended, in
spite of some disappointment about the
singing, both for the music and for
the playing.
Göran Forsling
Solveig Kringelborn (soprano) 
