Search - Edvard Grieg, Einar Steen-Nökleberg :: Grieg: Piano Music, Vol. 5

One for the specialist

G.D. | Norway | 02/28/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"The complete piano music of Edvard Grieg is one of those extremely commendable projects undertaken by Naxos (and it is almost a surprise to realize how much there is of it), and it was an excellent choice to give it to the Grieg expert Einar Steen-Nøkleberg whose playing throughout the series is consistently fine.



That said, it has to be admitted that this issue is primarily of specialist interest. True, Steen-Nøkleberg really plays these miniatures - both with piano and a house organ - as if they were minor gems. Unfortunately, they aren't. The intention behind the project was to write technically easy arrangements of famous Norwegian tunes, and Grieg was understandably even reluctant to put his name to it. And indeed many of these tunes will be familiar to Norwegians even today. But Grieg really doesn't add anything of interest to them and although a recording might be of historical interest, it doesn't really add up to a satisfying listening experience (there are even two further volumes which I haven't heard). They aren't even in the league of, say, Bartók's Music for Children. In the end, I am a little ambivalent as to how to evaluate this disc, insofar as there are respects in which we should be thankful to Naxos for giving us a real, complete picture of the composer. But at least as an artistic experience in itself I cannot honestly recommend it."