Norwegian Wood

LITHUANIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA SONDECKIS

This album contains a rarely compiled collection of smaller masterpieces Edvard Grieg had composed for string orchstra. It is not a coincidence though that most of the pieces are transformations of initially different formats. Edvard Grieg was of course famous as a pianist and as a composer for the piano during his life. His studies at the Leipzig Conservatory with teachers such as Ignaz Moscheles and Carl Reinecke, who both were renowned as virtuoso players all over Europe, had shaped this part of his artistry. So many of his works were originally composed for the keyboard instrument which seemed to be the appropriate means of communicating the Nordic folk music idiom, which Grieg transferred perfectly well into art music. These beautiful miniatures disclose the difference between the piano and the string band version: the orchestra with its ability of grounding harmonies, playing dynamically with tones and phrases are probably even better suited to carry on the melancholy themes and moods than the piano with its more transient sustainability. So the string arrangement gives a perfect testament of what Grieg’s music with its special Nordic idiom is about: authentic varying moods full of melancholy, surprising harmony modulation, use of organ points combined with open fifths and last but not least endless melodies anticipating in some parts the Impressionism.

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