Ole Kristian Ruud's distinguished series of recordings of the orchestral works of Grieg is augmented here with a disc containing the opera fragment Olav Trygvason, the dramatic scene At the Cloister Gate, plus seven songs for orchestra. With the participation of four different vocal soloists, three different choirs, and the
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra,
Ruud turns in wholly idiomatic, enormously effective, and hugely enjoyable performances of mostly little-known Grieg. The three extended scenes from Olav contain the most impressive music here, music full of the dramatic fury yet formally totally controlled. The setting of At the Cloister Gate provides the most surprising music here, music full of almost hysterical emotional moments unlike anything else in Grieg's music, but still, like all ofGrieg's best music, consummately and sublimely lyrical. The six songs for soprano with orchestra include the best-known music with two pieces taken from the Peer Gynt incidental music -- the achingly beautiful "Solveig's Song" and "Solveig's Cradle Song" -- plus the perennially popular and unendingly poignant "Last Spring." The final brief number, the song "In the Hills" in an arrangement by fellow composer Johan Halvorsen, serves in context as a charming almost-encore. Of the soloists, the most notable are the two sopranos:
Marita Solberg, whose smooth, warm, and supple voice aptly suits the six songs, and
Solveig Kringelborn, whose passionate yet nuanced performance of At the Cloister Gate so appropriately matches the music and text. Of the choruses, the women of the
Voci Nobili are especially salutary in their portrayal of a choir of nuns at the end of At the Cloister Gate. BIS' super-audio digital sound is -- if such a thing were possible -- even clearer, cleaner, deeper, and more detailed than its digital sound.