Martin Schmeding - Edvard Grieg: Organ Transcriptions (2004) [SACD]

Few composers attained during their lifetime a popularity comparable to that of Edvard Grieg. Numerous arrangements of his most famous works, for example the “Peer Gynt Suite” or the “Lyric Pieces”, have made his music accessible to a large audience. Despite this general recognition Grieg was plagued throughout his life by self-doubts. He found it difficult to accept that his genius and creativity lay in small forms, written in a classical-romantic musical language coloured by Norwegian influences and skilfully exploited, rather than in symphonic dimensions. On top of these musical difficulties came problems with his health and his private life. Moulded by a conservative bourgeois family and a conventional musical education at the Leipzig Conservatory, Grieg rejected a revolutionary attitude to musical development, such as can be found for example in the compositions of his contemporary Richard Strauss. He nevertheless found in his central works his very own formal and sonorous solutions. Grieg saw himself – contrary to great masters like Bach, Mozart and Beethoven – as a composer of his time writing for the contemporary audience. The constant popularity of some of his works surely testifies with hindsight to the quality of his inspiration and lets the epithet “Master of the Miniature” appear in a positive light. Because of the secular content of most of the works by Edvard Grieg, an arrangement for organ does not at first suggest itself. Nevertheless the musical structure and extremely varied coloration of numerous pieces make them adequately portrayable, with great technical and sonorous charm, by the “King of the instruments”. - Martin Schmeding


Tracks:

1. "Aus Holbergs Zeit" (Holberg-Suite) Op. 40, Präludium - 2:55
2. "Aus Holbergs Zeit" (Holberg-Suite) Op. 40, Sarabande - 4:09
3. "Aus Holbergs Zeit" (Holberg-Suite) Op. 40, Gavotte - 2:59
4. "Aus Holbergs Zeit" (Holberg-Suite) Op. 40, Air - 5:49
5. "Aus Holbergs Zeit" (Holberg-Suite) Op. 40, Rigaudon - 5:06
6. aus "Lyrische Stücke", Abend im Hochgebirge Op. 68,4 - 3:34
7. aus "Lyrische Stücke", Zug der Zwerge Op. 54,3 - 4:08
8. Sonate e-Moll Op. 7, Allegro moderato - 5:21
9. Sonate e-Moll Op. 7, Andante molto - 4:26
10. Sonate e-Moll Op. 7, Alla Menuetto, ma un poco più lento - 3:08
11. Sonate e-Moll Op. 7, Finale (Molto allegro) - 7:51
12. aus "Lyrische Stücke", Hochzeitstag auf Troldhaugen Op. 65,6 - 7:32
13. aus "Lyrische Stücke", An der Wiege Op. 68,5 - 3:01
14. Peer-Gynt-Suite I Op. 46, Morgenstimmung - 4:26
15. Peer-Gynt-Suite I Op. 46, Ases Tod - 3:42
16. Peer-Gynt-Suite I Op. 46, Anitras Tanz - 3:16
17. Peer-Gynt-Suite I Op. 46, In der Halle des Bergkönigs - 2:11