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Works:
Two Elegiac Melodies Op. 34, From Holberg’s Time Op. 40,
Two Melodies Op. 53: Norsk, Det første møte;
Two Nordic Melodies Op. 63: I folketonestil, Kulokk & Stabbelåten
Artists:
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln / Eivind Aadland (conductor)
This second volume, in a five-part series of the complete symphonic works with Eivind Aadland and the
WDR Sinfonieorchester, contains the works for string orchestra: a genre which Grieg mastered like no
other, chiefly arrangements of songs and piano pieces. Where the song arrangements of the Elegiac
Melodies Op. 34 and the Two Melodies Op. 53 were a form of ‘export edition’ for non-Scandinavian
countries (where they were extremely popular, even during Grieg’s lifetime), the famous suite From
Holberg’s Time Op. 40 is a homage to Ludvig Holberg, the caustic ‘Molière of the North’, whose 200th
birthday was celebrated in Bergen in 1884. For this occasion, Grieg composed a suite ‘in the old
style’ on dance forms of the late baroque (Holberg’s own time) without, however, denying his own,
romantic style. The late Nordic Melodies Op. 63 were written by the 51-year-old Grieg who was touring
internationally as a conductor and who, in the absence of major works, broadened his repertoire with
smaller pieces.
“The flavour of this music is in my blood”, says the conductor Eivind Aadland, who grew up in Grieg’s
hometown of Bergen and who today is an international artist. Aadland was chief conductor and artistic
director of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra from 2003 until 2010 and has also worked with many
other Scandinavian, European and international orchestras. He initially studied the violin with Yehudi
Menuhin. From 1981 until 1989 he was concert master of the Bergen Philharmonic and from 1987 until
1997 music director of the European Union Chamber Orchestra. He subsequently devoted himself fully
to his conducting career and studied with Jorma Panula.
CLASSIC FM CD OF THE WEEK
week beginning 29th August
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Works:
Symphonic Dances Op. 64, Peer Gynt Suite No.1, Peer Gynt Suite No.2, Funeral March in Memory of Rikard Nordraak EG 107
Artists:
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln / Eivind Aadland (conductor)
“The time has come to step forward with a work which is notable in both form and content.” These were the words of Edvard Grieg’s publisher, reminding the composer of the major genres of the time: symphony, oratorio, opera. But Grieg did not feel the need to write another symphony and another opera in the Middle European style. He wanted to give Norway its unique voice within European concert repertoire. And he did that with songs and piano pieces – and particularly with his symphonic works, released by audite in a five-part complete recording with Eivind Aadland and the WDR Symphony Orchestra. This first SACD of the complete edition presents Grieg’s principal collections: his four Symphonic Dances Op. 64 of 1898, where the composer draws on his experiences as a conductor of the leading European orchestras; and his two suites from the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen’s drama Peer Gynt, the story of the “Nordic Faust” which inspired Grieg to compose a sonic panorama of the Norwegian character – from the melancholy song of the abandoned Solveig to the furious chase in the Hall of the Mountain King.
Eivind Aadland’s roots in the tradition of Norwegian folk music audibly influence his interpretations. He comes from a family where Norwegian folk music played an important role, and already as a child he came into intensive contact with Grieg’s music. Ideal prerequisites therefore to rediscover Grieg’s symphonic works against the background of this tradition.
“With recording matching the scale of the music-making, Aadland’s new cycle – which, in these works, is more alive than Ruud’s and better played than Engeset’s – has hit the ground running.”
Mike Ashman, Gramophone
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