WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln & Eivind Aadland - Grieg: Complete Symphonic Works (2019) CD-Rip

The first volume of Audite's Complete Symphonic Works of Edvard Grieg includes two of his most popular orchestral works, the Peer Gynt Suites No. 1 and No. 2, along with the less famous Symphonic Dances, Op. 64, and the Funeral March in Memory of Rikard Nordraak. Mixing familiar and unfamiliar works is a good strategy for making each volume in this series accessible to listeners who might not know much Grieg, but the fine performances by Eivin Aadland and the WDR Sinfonie-Orchester Köln make the recordings even more appealing. The playing is vivid and engaging, and the orchestra sounds especially rich and colorful in the hybrid SACD format, which gives the music depth and realistic dimensions. While the orchestration is uncomplicated in Grieg's music, the freshness of his sonorities and the clarity of his lines are masterful, and Aadland is careful to preserve the simplicity and directness of the scores, particularly in the Peer Gynt suites. Because of the exceptionally wide dynamic range of the recordings, some attention to volume settings may be necessary.