I have had the pleasure of visiting Edvard
Grieg’s villa at Troldhaugen on two occasions. It is an experience that I shall
never forget. The location, the views across the fjord, and the good vibes in
the house itself, with the echoes of a cast of hundreds who visited Edvard and
Nina over the years add to the magic. These guests included Fred Delius and
Percy Grainger. The entire ‘museum’ is a little bit of heaven on earth. Excitingly,
Greig’s 1892 Steinway is in the main reception room. It is roped off, with lid
closed. I was certainly not allowed to bash my way through the opening bars of
Grieg’s Piano Concerto. And precious few are. And rightly so! The talented Pål
Eide is one of the lucky people who has been given permission to play the
master’s piano, both in recital and recording.
A CD of music from Edvard Grieg’s villa at
Troldhaugen without some of Grieg’s piano music would be like apple pie without
cheese. Pål Eide obliges with eight well-played pieces. The disc opens with the
less popular Pictures from Folk Life (Folkelivsbilleder, Op. 19). The
opening ‘Mountain Dance’ is full of powerful Norwegian folk rhythms whilst the
original ‘Wedding Procession’ may have been witnessed by Grieg whilst out on a
hiking holiday. The finale ‘From the Carnival’ is not Scandinavian, but evokes
Rome, a city often visited by the composer. I must admit that I did not really know
these Pictures. It is good to be introduced to them with Pål Eide’s
convincing account.
More popular pieces are included in the
selection from Lyric Pieces. As the liner notes explain, these ten
volumes of character pieces give a ‘wide perspective’ of Grieg’s life and work.
Volume 1 was published in 1867 when the composer was 24 years old. The last
appeared 34 year later in 1901. The pieces include the gossamer wings of the
‘Butterfly’, the evocative and almost impressionistic ‘To Spring’, the
imaginative ‘March of the Trolls’ with its melancholy ‘trio’ section and
finally the forward-looking ‘Bell Ringing’ with its provocative bare fifths.
Harald Sæverud’s The Ballad of Revolt
was a wartime work written during 1943. It is a short, but powerful, protest against
the German invasion of Norway and an encouragement to the resistance movement.
It was also arranged by the composer for orchestra.
I have not heard of David Monrad Johansen
before, which is a definite pity. The style of his music is a subtle fusion of
Norwegian folksong with French Impressionism. The present work, Pictures from
the North, op.5 includes four miniatures which seem to fit this
categorisation. The opening ‘Profile of a Woman’ is literally that: a musical
description of a lady Johansen had known: she clearly had an interesting
personality. ‘The Little Stone God’ was written after attending a revivalist evangelical
prayer meeting in the north of Norway. A
depressing event it must have been! ‘Reindeer’ is a vibrant piece recalling Johansen’s
childhood. And finally, ‘Towards the Mountains of my Forefathers’ is a musical landscape,
with the composer looking down at the family farm from a high hill. Here the
Greig-like folk element is at its strongest. All four pieces reflect Johansen’s
deep study of Debussy. However, I guess that he brings much of his own romantic
nature and enjoyment of folk music to these pieces.
Jesper Koch’s short piece The Mirror of
the Mind is a brittle and frosty evocation of the original folktale, The
Snow Queen, written by Hans Christian Andersen. I would have liked it to
have been longer and to have developed more of the story. It was composed
especially for Pål Eide.
The major work on this CD is Modest
Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. This is popular in the
composer’s original version for piano solo and in Maurice Ravel’s masterly
transcription for orchestra. There are some 101 versions of the latter in the
Arkiv CD catalogue (accessed 12 September 2019), compared to some 155
recordings of the piano version. Some of these are repackagings, but one gets
the idea of the work’s status.
Pictures at an Exhibition was composed in
1874. The concept of this cycle of sixteen movements or sections was an
exhibition of paintings by the composer’s friend, the architect and painter Viktor
Hartmann. The work musically describes eleven of the artist’s paintings loosely
connected by an interlude (Promenade) intended to portray the visitor strolling
around the gallery. One of the problems with any discussion of this work is
that several of the original art works have disappeared.
‘Musical description’ in Pictures at an
Exhibition is pervasive. There is the clumsiness of the ‘Gnomus,’ or dwarf,
walking with uneven steps, the Troubadour singing his lugubrious serenade at
the castle gate and the dispute between two children playing in the Tuileries
Garden. The lumbering oxcart is well-drawn. I have always enjoyed the imaginary
but purely magical concept of the ‘Ballet of the Unhatched Chickens’. Equally vivacious, is the representation of
the haggling market traders at Limoges.
The ‘Catacombs of Paris’ are described with creepy chords that reflect light
from the artists lantern on discovering a pile of skulls on the floor.
The final painting, an architectural
design, is the best-known. ‘The Great Gate of Kiev’ is replete of sounds of
pealing bells, a grand civic march and chanting priests. It is fitting
conclusion to a splendid cycle of musical sounds. It is amazing that Grieg’s Steinway
is still in one piece after the thundering peroration of this music.
There is some debate as to the pianistic
qualities of Pictures. Sometimes it seems that the what we are hearing
is the ‘draft short score’ of an orchestral piece. Over the years there have
been many attempts to provide just that, with Ravel’s winning the palm. Be that
as it may, Pål Eide gives a splendidly authoritative performance here.
The mood returns to the peace and quiet of
Norway’s pastures with the lovely miniature ‘Cattle Call’, from the Norwegian
Folksong and Dances op.17. It recalls a song heard by the composer when walking
in the hills. I agree with the liner notes that this makes an ideal encore
after a powerful programme. It is a perfect miniature.
There is no doubt about the imaginative
and typically exiting playing by Pål Eide. Grieg’s Steinway sounds remarkably
well for its age: a lot of time and effort must go into maintaining and tuning
it to such a high standard.
The pianist was born in Bergen in 1970,
although he now is based in Denmark. He studied at the Royal Danish Academy and
the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. Eide debuted in Copenhagen during 1997,
before having further studies with Jiri Hlinka in Norway. His first album, Grey
Clouds included music by Liszt, Ravel, Debussy and Stravinsky.
The liner notes are interesting, if not
fulsome with analytical details of each work. Eide tells the tale of this
recording with its trials and tribulations. It is a good story. I have used the
titles of the Grieg pieces as given in the track listing: they may differ from
other catalogues etc.
I enjoyed this album of music from Grieg’s
summer villa. It is beautifully played, with the huge bonus of being performed
on Grieg’s own piano. It makes me want to go back to Bergen and Troldhaugen as
soon as possible. I wonder if the endearing hedgehog I saw last time I was
there is still scampering about the composer’s gorgeous garden. She was a very
lucky lady!
Track Listing:
Edvard
GRIEG
(1843-1907) Pictures from Folk Life, op.19 (1871)
Selected
Lyric Pieces: Butterfly, op.43, no.1; To Spring, op.43 no.6 (1886);
March of the Trolls, op.54, no.3; Bell Ringing, op.54, no.6 (1891)
Harald
SÆVERUD
(1897-1992) The Ballad of Revolt, op.22 no.5 (1943)
David
Monrad JOHANSEN
(1888-1974) Pictures from the North, op.5 (1919)
Jesper
KOCH
(b,1967) The Mirror of the Mind (2007)
Modest
MUSSORGSKY
(1839-81) Pictures at an Exhibition (1874)
Edvard
GRIEG Cattle
Call, op.17, no.22 (1869)
Pål
Eide (piano)
Rec.
Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen, Bergen, 31 October-3 November 2018
DANACORD DACOCD 847
With
thanks to MusicWeb International where this review was first published.
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