Havard Gimse- piano*; Inga Dam-Jensen- soprano & Palle Knudsen- baritone #; Frøydis Armand- narrator^; Soloists, Malmo Chamber Choir & Lund Choral School Chorus<; Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Discs One & Two) and Malmo Symphony Orchestra (Discs Three to Eight); Soloists, Malmo Opera Chorus and Orchestra>; all conducted by Bjarte Engeset.
Naxos 8.508015 (recorded 2003 to 2013; this CD set issued 2014)
(digital download; flacs, booklets, cover and inlay scans)
Disc One:
01. In Autumn. Concert Overture:, op.11 [11'06]
02. - 04. Piano Concerto in A minor, op.16* [29'23]
05. - 08. Symphonic Dances, op.64 - [31.17]
Disc Two:
01. - 03. (arr. Øistein Sommerfeldt) Slåtter. Suite for Orchestra, op.72 [9'09]
04. - 07. (arr. Hans Sitt) Norwegian Dances, op.35 [17'34]
08. (arr. Johan Halvorsen) Funeral March in Memory of Rikard Nordraak, op.73 [7'48]
09. (arr. Johan Halvorsen) The Bridal Procession Passes By, op.19 no.2 [3'38]
10. (arr. Geirr Tveitt): Ballade, op.24 [19'35]
11. Bell-Ringing from 'Lyric Pieces - Book 5', op.54 no.6 [4'27]
Disc Three:
01. - 4. Symphony in C minor, EG 119 [32:48]
05. Old Norwegian Romance with Variations, op.51 [22:14]
06. - 08. Three Orchestral Pieces from ‘Sigurd Jorsalfar’, op.56 [16'30]
Disc Four:
01. - 04. Peer Gynt Suite No.1, op.46 [14'39]
05. - 08. Peer Gynt Suite No.2, op.55 [17'09]
09. The First Meeting, op.21 no.1# [3'48]
10. The Mountain Thrall, op.32# [5'59]
11. - 16. Six Orchestral Songs, EG.177# [24'10]
Disc Five:
01. - 24. Peer Gynt, op.23 - Acts One to Four< [75'58]
Disc Six:
01. - 09. Peer Gynt, op.23 - Act Five< [23'56]
10. At the Cloister Gate 'Before a Southern Convent', op.20 [9'26]
11. Bergliot, op.42^ [18'45]
Disc Seven:
01. - 02. Two Elegiac Melodies, op.34 [8'47]
03. - 04. Two Melodies for String Orchestra, op.53 [8'20]
05. - 09. Holberg Suite, op.40 [20'06]
10. - 11. Two Lyric Pieces, op.68 [7'10]
12. - 14. Two Nordic Melodies for String Orchestra, op.63 [11'07]
15. - 18. Lyric Suite, op.54 [15'42]
Disc Eight:
01. Land-Sighting, op.31< [6'38]
02. - 03. Two Choruses from Sigurd Jorsalfar, op.22< [10'06]
04. - 06. Incidental Music from Sigurd Jorsalfar> [7'13]
07. - 09. Scenes from Olav Trygvason, op.50> [37'28]
10. Edmund Neuport (orch. Grieg) - Resignation [2'53]
Recording venues: Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow & Concert Hall, Malmo
Recording engineers: Tim Handley & Erik B Nielsen; Producers: Tim Handley & Morten Mogensen
As with two other sets of Grieg's Complete Orchestral Works released in recent years, all three with Norwegian conductors (Ole Christian Ruud with the Bergen Philharmonic for BIS and Eivind Aadland and the Cologne WDR Symphony for Audite are the other two), the title needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. For some unaccountable reason, all three sets omit one of Grieg's most popular and effective short pieces - Wedding Day at Troldhaugen. This is, of course, an orchestration of no.6 from Book Eight of Lyric Pieces, op.65, but at least the arrangement was made by Grieg himself. Given that in this case, all but one track on disc 2 is of arrangements of piano works made by other composers, the last track on disc 8 is just an arrangement by Grieg of another composers work and that many vocal and choral works are included, the omission of Wedding Day is quite baffling.
Apart from this sad omission, this is an excellent collection of Grieg's music in fine performances. Critics have generally come down on the side of the Aadland set but I prefer this one overall - although I have to admit that Ruud has the best recorded sound. Although it is far from being a favourite work, if I do listen to the Grieg Piano Concerto it is usually this recording with the excellent Norwegian pianist Havard Gimse or Earl Wild with Rene Leibowitz on Chesky.
Download from MEGA.
Please note: In this download, on disc three the Old Norwegian Romance with Variations is presented as a single track whereas the booklet shows it divided into 19 miniscule tracks. A throwback to the days when some CDs had index points and a few players could recognise them? If anybody really wants it in this form, I can supply a further upload.