Hagai Shaham, Arnon Erez - Grieg: The Violin Sonatas (2006)

There have been few recordings of all three of Grieg's beguiling violin sonatas, and with the exception of the sublime Augustin Dumay/Maria-João Pires recording, most of them have been negligible. There have been still fewer recordings of arrangements of his charming piano miniatures by Joseph Achron and nearly all of them have been negligible. So perhaps one can be forgiven for approaching this disc by violinist Hagai Shaham and pianist Arnon Erez coupling all three sonatas plus six song arrangements with more than casual curiosity: could this be the recording that finally puts the works on the musical map?
In a word, no. Shaham is a fine player with an admirable technique and a tight but sweet tone and Erez is a sympathetic accompanist with a deft technique and full but reserved tone, but neither of them have any idea what to do with Grieg's violin sonatas. Grieg's melodies, so redolent of Norwegian folk songs, sound deracinated. Grieg's harmonies, so evocative of his highly emotional nature, sound etiolated. And Grieg's forms, so rooted on classical models, sound more like desiccated skeletons than living, breathing music. In the six-song arrangements, Shaham and Erez are more comfortable, using an all-purpose demotic accent that almost approximates Norwegian. In their earlier recordings of Bloch and Hubay, Shaham and Erez were much more persuasive. On their Grieg disc, they sound out of their element, even in Hyperion's trademark clear, deep sound.