In my native country, Opus 43
No. 3
Gade, Opus 57 No. 2
Homesickness, Opus 57 No.8
Homeward, Opus 62 No. 6
Watchman’s song, Opus 12 No.
3
Cradle song, Opus 68 No. 5
Waltz, Opus 38 No. 7
Folksong, Opus 12 No. 5
Elegy, Opus 38 No. 6
Melody, Opus 47 No. 3
Norwegian melody, Opus 12 No.
6
Melody, Opus 38 No. 3
Summer evening, Opus 71 No. 2
Canon, Opus 38 No. 8
Sylphe, Opus 62 No. 1
At your feet, Opus 68 No. 3
Butterfly, Opus 43 No. 1
Notturno, Opus 54 No. 4
Phantom, Opus 62 No. 5
Gone, Opus 71 No. 6
Arietta, Opus 12 No. 1
Remembrances, Opus 71 No. 7
This Grieg recital
is of special interest for several reasons.
First, Grieg is always cited as a miniaturist
who wrote a few larger pieces such as
the Piano Concerto and Peer Gynt; yet
it is always that larger pieces that
we hear. So a focus upon what many critics
regard as his natural territory must
be a good thing.
Grieg composed his
various sets of Lyric Pieces across
several decades and they therefore represent
a subtle but telling cross-section of
his stylistic development; nor can they
be pinned down to a single outlook,
as the titles readily reveal. The pianist
Heidi Kommerell plays on a Streicher
piano of 1829, so her performances have
a certain aspect of authenticity of
scale and tone. With subtle mood music
such as this, all these factors are
of considerable interest, and so too
are the performances themselves.
If there is a caveat
it is hardly a major one, but more a
matter of whether the sound of the piano
– which was a ‘cutting edge instrument’
in 1829 – is necessarily the right sound
for music composed towards the end of
the 19th century. No doubt
you can argue that Grieg would have
known plenty of mature instruments during
his own time, but even so the observation
remains valid. As for the recorded sound,
this is never less than adequate and
in faster pieces the crisp rhythmic
articulation is given due prominence.
The slower music, of
which there is a good deal, does gain
somewhat from the more expressive sound
and interpretation of a ‘modern instrument’
performance by a great pianist such
as Murray Perahia, who is one such who
excels in this repertoire.
Kommerell is an artist
who conveys much understanding and sensitivity
in these delightful pieces. There are
twenty-two collected here, the longest
of them the Bach-inspired Canon, Opus
38 No. 8, which plays for just on five
minutes. But the majority are a good
deal smaller than that, veritable ‘songs
without words’ just a minute or two
in duration but sensitively and imaginatively
conceived to create maximum effect.
Terry Barfoot
Heidi Kommerell (fortepiano) 
