All these little
gems are immensely popular, of course. There are well over
thirty recordings of Grieg’s Holberg Suite in the
catalogues varying in quality from the excellent to the
pretty dire. Bargain hunters are advised to purchase with
care for there are some clinkers out there. A super bargain
recommendation for the Holberg Suite coupled with
Stenhammar’s attractive Serenade for Orchestra and
Nielsen’s Little Suite, performed by the Norwegian
Radio Orchestra under Ari Rasilainen is available on Warner
Apex 0927 43075-2.
This new recording
is something special. First of all the SACD sound is really
splendid. The sound is warm and all the intricacy of Grieg’s
multi-part string writing is clearly revealed; the sound
stage perspective is exemplary. More importantly Ruud and
his Bergen players clearly love their national repertory
and these well-loved works sound as fresh as when you first
heard them. They are played with warmth and commitment;
the ensemble playing is immaculate, the phrasing beautifully
expressive; the sweet sentimentality of so many of the little
pieces never over-indulged, never allowed to become cloying;
for instance, Ruud’s reading of Grieg’s Two Elegiac Melodies
The Wounded Heart and Last Spring, the former
gently sighs and sobs, and the melancholy yearning and nostalgia
of the latter is lovingly shaped with no hint of the patronising.
The Holberg
Suite was composed in 1884 to celebrate the 200th
anniversary of the birth of Norwegian-born Danish poet Ludvig
Holberg. Ruud realises all the grace and refinement of these
exquisite little pieces written in the forms of baroque
and rococo music to create a Holberg period atmosphere -
yet still retaining Grieg’s essential style. He gives the
opening Prelude spirit and attack and there is a real feeling
of out-of-doors freshness and joie de vivre.
‘Norsk’ the
first of the ‘Two Melodies’ contrasts the charm of a rustic
folkdance/march with more intimate lyrical material while
‘The First Meeting’ is a shy and tentative romance again
very sensitively realised. The Two Nordic Melodies
begin a little more darkly for ‘Popular Song’ with its shadowy
lower string introduction and melancholy violin song that
seems to intimate some sorely-felt loss before the tempo
quickens and grief slackens to acceptance. The multi-part
string writing here is most effective – at one point there
is an impression of cross-rhythmic zephyr breezes. The more
popular of the Two Nordic Melodies ‘Cow Keeper’s’
Tune and ‘Country Dance’ begins as a lullaby, one of Grieg’s
loveliest tunes while the well-known ‘Country Dance’ is
a sheer exuberant delight here.
The Two Lyric
Pieces begin evocatively with ‘Evening in the Mountains’,
this time oboe soloist Rainer Gibbons joining the strings
to lend a lonely voice – perhaps that of a shepherd or cattle
herdsman, up on the mountains - before the strings in elegiac
mood pay homage to departing day. ‘At the Cradle’ ends the
concert with another sweet, wistful lullaby
Grieg was a
pianist not a string player so his accomplishments in this
genre are all the more impressive. By the way, Grieg’s brother
was a skilled cellist who helped him develop his string
writing.
I must mention
the excellent notes by Sigvald Tveit who concentrates on
Grieg’s string-writing technique. Quoting Tveit, “Grieg
writes for strings in an extremely detailed and carefully
worked manner. This applies, too, to the dynamic markings.
For example, he can move from fff to ppp in
the course of a couple of bars. There are numerous different
but typical instructions for string players such as sul
ponticello (direction to the player to take the bow
as near as possible to the bridge to produce a rather metallic
but mysterious sound-effect), tremolo and bow-change
on the same note. And he consciously uses open strings as
a way of colouring the sound.”
Lovely, warm,
sensitive performances of favourite Grieg pieces in superior
SACD sound.
Ian Lace
Bergen Philharmonic
Orchestra/Ole Kristian Ruud
[59:15]
