Grieg: Symphony , Symphonic Dances , Bergliot.

I really enjoyed this 2-CD set of music by Edvard Grieg. It features very good performances, well recorded, of music that goes well beyond Grieg's best-known pieces such as the Peer Gynt suites or the Piano Concerto.

CD 1 starts out with Grieg's Symphony, an early work that he later suppressed. Well, I can't see why, it is really a pleasure to listen to, with some very familiar-sounding themes in the first movement. I enjoy Grieg's use of silence in the symphony -- in a few places in a couple of different movements, he creates sudden silences that suck the listener in, that cause a physical jolt as the body expects continuing music. Not a Grieg expert by any means, I don't know why he rejected the work later. There are spots where themes are perhaps repeated to much and developed too little, but as faults go, these are not extreme.

Then come the Symphonic Dances, a late work originally written for piano four hands and then orchestrated. Fine performances of these pieces derived from Norwegian folk themes. Very nice, but for my tastes these were the least interesting items in the set.

CD 2 begins with Bergljot, sometimes written Bergliot, a melodrama featuring a narrator over orchestral accompaniment. Melodramatic spoken Norwegian language is the watchword here. I barely understood a word (though I thought I picked out "father" a couple of times), and it was wonderful. A cascade of Scandinavian sounds, with a text by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. I finally did look up the text on the net, and it is about King Harald of Norway and a great battle. The good guys -- the Norwegians, of course -- lose. Great tragedy all around, which comes through even for non-Norwegian speakers. A wonderful piece.

Next come the three completed sections of the unfinished opera Olav Trygvason, about another tragic Norwegian king who died at sea in the Battle of Svolder. These three pieces really made me wish Grieg and librettist Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson had finished the opera -- but apparently they had a falling out. There is plenty of Wagnerian influence -- Grieg uses the same string section chords that start out the overture to Die Walküre, for example, and the solo vocal parts also have a Wagnerian feeling about them. But there are also plenty of singing for chorus, which really doesn't recall Wagner at all. Excellent listening.

Finally, the set closes with the relatively short Funeral March In Memory Of Rikard Nordraak. Nordraak was a Norwegian composer, best known for writing the national anthem. He was a great influence on Grieg as a pioneer in using Norwegian folk music in serious composition. This dirge is suitably funereal, and a great close to the tragedy-infused CD 2 in this set.

Highly recommended.