GRIEGDaniel Gortler, (pn) PROSPERO 082 (64:20)
Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine
GRIEG
Arietta, op. 12/1. Berceuse, op. 38/1. March of the Dwarfs, op. 54/3.
Vanished Days, op. 57/1. Brooklet, op. 62/4. Solitary Traveler, op. 43/2. To
Spring, op. 43/6. Norwegian Dance, op. 47/4. At your feet, op. 68/3. Butterfly,
op. 43/1. Melody, op. 47/3. Gade, op. 57/2. Albumleaf, op. 47/2. Ballade, op. 65/5.
Summer’s Eve, op, 71/2. Little Bird, op. 43/4. Peasant’s Song, op. 65/2.
Notturno, op. 54/4. At the Cradle, op. 68/5. Puck, op. 71/3. Peace of the Woods,
op. 71/4.
Whole discs of Grieg piano music are relatively rare, so it is good to have this selection of 21 (out of a total of 66).
This is a beautiful recording of beautiful music. Gortler’s playing is intimate, his fine piano tone well caught in Prospero’s recording. He shapes the melody of the famous Arietta almost vocally, his treble sweet and songlike. The Berceuse that follows is a logical continuation, a prolongation almost. Gerler’s rubato is natural, and for the central section halling, Gortler uses a crisper, harder touch to great effect; when we hear the opening section again, its effect is deepened by the experience.
The March of the Dwarfs is one of the more familiar of the Lyric Pieces because Grieg arranged t for orchestra in his Lyric Suite. There is, again, a contrastive section that hear seems to ache with nostalgia/ Gortler paints pictures in front of our ears, his variety of touch impressive. He is clearly on a fine piano, and the Prospero recording serves him extremely well.
As a reflective interlude, Vanished Days allows space for introspection. Gortler knows exactly the amount of rubato to use, taking it close to the limit, but never beyond. He is careful to allow staccatos to be exactly that, allowing variety of articulation; there is no over-pedaling anywhere on the disc. This is arguably the finest performance on the disc; the care of all aspects results in Grieg’s masterpiece emerging as a perfect sound sculpture.
Listen to Gortler’s mezzo-staccato left-hand octaves, how each one is identical and yet they move towards harmonic arrivals perfectly. For an example of articulation at a more rapid rate, try the lovely Album Leaf, op. 47/2. The Ballad, op. 65/5, equals Vanished Days in emotive weight.
Gortler can do light too: Brooklet does indeed bubble away. And if Grieg’s Solitary Traveler is no Wotan-Wanderer, he still carries a weight. Gortler allows the music, and specifically the harmonies, the perfect space in which.to resonate and make their mark.
Another of Grieg’s most famous works is To Spring. Here, Gortler is expansive and also allows himself to be passionate. A new entrant to the field in this particular piece is Chinese pianist Di Xiao on her album To Spring (released on Pacific Audio and Visual Co.).
Propiano gives Gortler’s piano more depth, but interpretatively Xiao seems just a touch more attuned to Grieg’s expressive world. Both pianists delineate the various strata Grieg presents well. Gortler does make the familiar feel fresh, though. Just listen to his take on Melody (op. 47/3). Part of the key is how he makes Grieg’s wonderful harmonic twists sound so unexpected.
There is an earthiness to the Norwegian Dance, op. 47/4, with its drone bass, that reminds us that not all of Grieg’s music is innocuous to the ear. I remember hearing a recital back in 2000 at the BMIC in London, UK (the British Music Information Centre) when pianist Phillip Thomas presented a program of Cardew, Christian Wolff, Michael Finnissy and … Grieg. The Grieg in question was from the op. 72 Slåtter and sounded closer to Bartók. Certainly, it was no odd-man-out in the august Modernist company. Gortler reminds us of this side of Grieg’s genius before, in At Your Feet, offering instantly the flip side of the coin with a dreamy nocturne. A cello and violin (metaphorically) sing in the outpouring that is the central panel of the piece.
The fleet-of-finger movements, such Butterfly, offer no challenge at all to Gortler. Almost Schumannesque in its whimsy, Gortler’s account is magnificent. The sense of Romantic free-flow in Gade, too, seems to pinpoint the heart of the music, while the gestures of Little Bird are far from superficial, and on a recording level remind us of the excellence of the recording itself here.
The Notturno in G-Minor, op. 54/4 is one of Grieg’s most lovely outpourings. Steven Hough recently encored this piece in a recital I attended in China as part of the Beijing Music Festival. Many did not know what it as, but everyone wanted to know. Gortler allows us to fully immerse ourselves into Grieg’s miniature toe-painting. The final group carefully leads us out of Grieg’s forest of melody, a deceptively simple At the Cradle leading to.
There is a “Puck” here. It is perhaps less shadowy than Debussy’s famous “Danse de Puck” from the first book of Préludes; Grieg’s is more of a whirligig. There is the very slightest blurring in some of the bass statements of the circular theme, but the performance nevertheless steals the heart. It is left to Peace of the Woods to close, a crepuscular adieu.
It is true not all of this music is too technically challenging, but it is all difficult on an interpretative level, and Gortler consistently gets it right. His sequencing is perfectly judged, too: the disc runs on in one gorgeous stream of melody that only Grieg could have written.
I enjoyed Ana Glig’s selection of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces on the Sound Dynamics label (review in Fanfare 42:3), but that was only eleven of them, and Grieg shared the bed with others. Here, we have an hour in which to admire Grieg’s mastery of the miniature. A disc to delight; a disc to warm the heart.
Five stars: Gortler consistently gets it right: a disc to delight; a disc to warm the heart. Recommended.