I wonder what the general opinion is of what recording to get?
Tom :)
Andersen (Decca Eloquence) is excellent - and cheap! Lovely work, by the way.
No problem with people enjoying it, of course. Speaking for myself, I tend to agree with the Hurwitzer's verdict: "a faceless work that the composer was right to dismiss." :-\
I wouldn't make any great claims for the piece, but I'm personally glad it survived. It's the work of a very gifted young composer, so it's bound to be derivative. But who cares? It's delightful.
It's years since I've listened to Grieg's Symphony and I've retained no memory whatsoever of it - maybe that's a consequence of it being derivative? I'd better dig it out tomorrow and give it a spin.
It's a nice piece. Not a masterwork but certainly on the level or better than many other works talked about on this forum.
I'll look into the Decca eloquence version.
I recall that 10 years ago (or so) the indefatigable Neeme Jarvi with the Gothenburg SO brought out a 5CD box on DG of just about all Grieg's orchestral works.
That formed my introduction to the Grieg symphony. And Alan is spot on in referring to it as 'delightful'. Of course it is one of those works that is both derivative and hardly sufficient to change music history. But so utterly what? It bursts with vitality and energy, and heaven help us if we lived solely on a diet of masterpieces. So I really don't give tuppence for Hurwitz's assertion that it is a faceless work that Grief was right to dismiss. That is entirely Mr Hurwitz's loss, sad man that he is.
A roundabout way of saying that the Jarvi version is very good indeed, and I believe the 'constituents' of that 5 CD box are now all available as low price single discs.
I'm so pleased that I've been prodded into giving this work a second chance. I enjoyed it very much this afternoon. Not great music and rather anonymous, we all agree, but if it was a piece of juvenilia by an unsung composer I'd have been pretty impressed. The first movement struck me as full of ideas and capable of sustaining its length in the same way that those, on the face of it, over long movements in Dvorák's early symphonies never quite run out of steam. I wasn't so struck by the middle two movements but the finale has more than enough get-up-and-go. Great fun.
I would recommend two recordings of the Symphony, both played by Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. The first one is an old Virgin CD with Dmitrij Kitajenko conducting, and the second form a part of BIS' wonderful series of Grieg's complete orchestral works on SACD. This time Ole Kristian Ruud stands at the podium.
Morten
Quote from: M. Henriksen on Tuesday 14 February 2012, 10:41
I would recommend two recordings of the Symphony, both played by Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. The first one is an old Virgin CD with Dmitrij Kitajenko conducting, and the second form a part of BIS' wonderful series of Grieg's complete orchestral works on SACD. This time Ole Kristian Ruud stands at the podium.
Seconded, great recording. The Bjarte Engeset one isn't bad, either.
As to the piece, I'm really rather fond of it - more even than the majority of later Grieg works. Nothing spectacular maybe, but never boring.
You almost convince me to play it again. ;)
Quote from: M. Henriksen on Tuesday 14 February 2012, 10:41
I would recommend two recordings of the Symphony, both played by Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. The first one is an old Virgin CD with Dmitrij Kitajenko conducting, and the second form a part of BIS' wonderful series of Grieg's complete orchestral works on SACD. This time Ole Kristian Ruud stands at the podium.
Morten
I can get the Virgin for $5.00 so I'll jump on it.
Tom
Bought the Naxos cd of this symphony and have listened to it several times. Thank you for referring me to it. It really is a delightful work.
cheers
Dennis
I just received a new audite recording in SACD of the symphony and gave an 'A' to the sound recording quality. I'm in the process of reviewing it. The other work on the disc is his Piano Concerto.
Tom
I have several recordings of this.
There is a CD on the Decca Eloquence label that pairs the Grieg Symphony with another unsung, Goldmark's Rustic Wedding Symphony.
Vol 4 of Grieg's Symphonic Works on Audite SACD by Aadland conducting the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln.
There's a Naxos recording, of course.
There is Neeme Jarvi's take on DGG.
And on LP, Andersen with the Bergen Symphony.
Grieg is not really unsung, but I suppose this work is played less often than his other orchestral works. It's rather generic and has no real sense of national roots. The engineering of the recordings is variable of course. I rather like the Eloquence pressing, maybe because I prefer the coupling on the disc. The SACD audio of the Aadland recording is good -- in comparison, the Jarvi sounds rather strident. But I have so many recordings of the Grieg Piano Concerto that I never put this on the deck for listening.
At the moment, the one part of this symphony I find really memorable is the Scherzo, but I do find it striking...
I don't listen the Grieg Symphony since some years (I own various versions). But since the days of Lp (I had the Andersen version, maybe the first and the only one in vinyl days) I retain in my memory the Scherzo.