The works on this CD have
been around the block several times, separately or together,
though none the worse for that. First released in 1991, then
reissued at mid-price, it now reappears at bargain price. The
matrix number suggests that the recording has been re-mastered.
To complicate matters,
this version of the Grieg Piano Concerto is also available at
around the same price on HMV 5 86729 2, more appropriately coupled
with Beecham’s excerpts from Peer Gynt, a CD available
only in HMV stores or online, but well worth seeking out for
Beecham’s contribution alone. There is also a 2-CD Virgin set
with the Grieg Piano Concerto and solo piano pieces (5 61745
2). This version of the Grieg Concerto also appeared as part
of a 2-CD anthology, ‘Leif Ove Andsnes – A Portrait’, in 2002,
when it was adjudged “superb … not quite in the Kovacevich or
Perahia class but very, very close” by John Phillips on this
website.
The Grieg Concerto on all
these CDs is not to be confused with Andsnes’ own later award-winning
recording with the Berlin Phil under Jansons, more conventionally
coupled with the Schumann Piano Concerto. To add to the confusion,
this later recording is also about to be reissued, still at
full price, coupling the Grieg Piano Concerto and some solo
piano pieces, as ‘Ballad for Edvard Grieg’, EMI 3 94399 2.
The impulse-buyer, looking
to purchase his or her first CD of these works, will find very
little information in the minimalist booklet of notes. In fact,
the statement there that “this youthful work [is] often compared
to the concerto by Schumann” highlights one of the drawbacks:
having listened to the excellent advocacy of the Grieg on this
CD and wishing to investigate the link with Schumann, he will
discover that nearly all the recommended versions of the latter
are coupled with the Grieg.
The novice will also be
misled by the statement in the booklet that Grieg composed six
books of Lyric Pieces (actually ten), of which Op.65 is the fifth
(actually the eighth). The five lines on the Liszt Concerto are
even shorter. At least this is better than European-sourced Eloquence
CDs but if Naxos, Regis, Australian Eloquence and Warner Apex
can offer decent notes at this price, why cannot Virgin? Naxos
even generously make their notes available online. Surely, too,
having heard such fine advocacy of the Liszt Concerto, our novice
will want to try Liszt’s other Piano Concerto, only to discover
that nearly all the recordings couple the two Liszt Concertos,
plus Totentanz or some solo piano music.
Such reservations apart,
the reader who has picked his or her way through the above will
already have assumed that I have a high regard for the performances.
I have not heard Andsnes’ later version of the Grieg but it
must be very good indeed if it is to be preferred. Though Andsnes
was still (just) a teenager when this earlier version was made,
his is a fresh and insightful performance and youthful insight
is sometimes hard to excel or even match later. The teenage
Yehudi Menuhin gave a performance of Elgar’s Violin Concerto,
under the composer’s own direction, which he never surpassed
or even equalled in his later recordings. There are also good
reasons for preferring Nigel Kennedy’s first version of that
same Elgar Concerto (on its own on CFP 5 75139 2 or coupled
with the Introduction and Allegro on EMI 3 45792 2) to his later
remake with Rattle, quite apart from the price differential.
In fact, the later version is due for reissue in September,
2007, on EMI 5 03417 2, which will largely rule out the price
differential.
When this Andsnes recording
first appeared, the general consensus was that it offered fresh
interpretations, though some felt that both concertos were a
little slow and under-powered. Certainly the very opening of
the Grieg begins in a grand manner, with no sense that either
the soloist or the orchestra are holding back, but it soon becomes
apparent that both Andsnes and Kitayenko lay stress on the lyrical
rather than the barnstorming aspect of this work, though with
plenty of power when it is called for. I, for one, found the
overall effect very satisfying, though with the proviso that
this might not be the only version I should wish to have. Only
in the slow movement did I find the performance a little too
dreamy and even here the hushed playing, very well captured
by the engineers, was convincing in its own context. The Finale
goes out in a blaze of glory.
The competition is fierce:
excellent versions of this Concerto slip out of the catalogue
almost unnoticed. Around the same time as the first appearance
of this Andnes CD a fine version of the Grieg/Schumann coupling
appeared on CFP at bargain price, Pascal Devoyon with the LPO
under Jerzy Maksymiuk. Though it had a great deal going for
it – would, indeed, still be very competitive with this Andsnes’
reissue, at much the same price – it seems to have been consigned
to oblivion, despite being compared more than favourably with
the Andsnes by the eminent critic who found the latter too languid.
Paradoxically, to demonstrate how the judgement of tempo is
a very subjective matter, all three movements in the Andsnes
version are actually slightly faster overall than the Devoyon.
Amongst the great interpreters
of the past, Rubinstein appears to be available only reissues
of historical recordings or on a DVD collection (Chopin, Grieg
and Saint-Saëns on DG Unitel 0734195). The Curzon/Fjeldstad
version by which I came to know the Grieg Concerto, on a 10-inch
stereo Decca LP, is currently available only in one of two multi-CD
boxes. Perhaps Australian Eloquence would do us the favour of
reissuing it on a single CD: the coupling with Franck and Schumann,
as on its most recent Decca appearance, would be ideal. They
already have one very good Grieg/Schumann coupling with Arrau
and von Dohnanyi on 456 566 2 and there is a recommendable Anda/Kubelik
version of the Grieg concerto coupled with Karajan’s Peer
Gynt suites on European Eloquence 469 624 2.
The danger of having carried
one version in one’s head, as it were, for 45 years, is that
it comes to be regarded as the ideal to which all others must
conform. In the case of the Grieg Concerto, however, there is
little danger of this, since no two versions, even among the
best I have heard, ever sound alike. Similar considerations
apply to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons: far from being ‘fixed’ on the
first version which I heard, from Münchinger on Ace of Clubs,
which would hardly pass muster today but seemed the bee’s knees
then, I find it very difficult to recommend one version among
the many fine but very different interpretations I have heard.
If pressed, I should have
to recommend the Kovacevich/Davis version of the Grieg and Schumann
Concertos as the best available: see Rob Barnett’s Musicweb
review;
since that review in 2001 this CD has undergone yet another
transmogrification, still available on 464 702 2 and on an earlier
Philips Solo version, 446 199 2, now also on Philips Originals,
475 7773 - the number listed in the Penguin Guide Yearbook appears
to be incorrect. This version of the Grieg Concerto is also
available on a 2-CD Philips Duo with the Peer Gynt suites,
under Leppard (438 380 2).
This was a glorious period
for the young Stephen Bishop, as he was then known, in partnership
with Colin Davis: I have recently praised their Mozart Concertos
from that period and their Bartók (Concertos 1-3 on Australian
Eloquence 468 1882, also due for reissue rather more expensively
on Philips Originals 475 8690) is equally fine.
The performance of the
Liszt also makes it slightly less of a warhorse than usual.
Again, I find the stress on the lyrical aspects of this work
refreshing and there is no lack of power where it is required.
I certainly do not find the lack of overall structure that some
have complained of.
The Lyric Pieces are very
well played – here, for once, in view of their title, Andsnes’
lyricism cannot be in doubt. The recording, both of the Concertos
and these solo items, is very good, with the quiet moments especially
effectively captured.
Our hypothetical beginner
who might purchase this CD is unlikely to have any cause for dissatisfaction:
he or she would be getting a far better bargain than my 10-inch
version of the Grieg. The eighteen shillings which I paid for
that LP would convert to more like £18 at today’s prices, whereas
this CD, at around a third of that price, offers almost three
times the music, thus leaving money in reserve for a good version
of the Schumann. I am currently awaiting a review copy of the
Schumann, in a version not coupled for once with the Grieg. Watch
this space for further news.
Brian
Wilson
