This morning, Sib1 tweeted out a little Grieg for Earth Day. This is of note not only due to her alacrity with our blog, when certain other parties have apparently gone silent in a nuclear sub, but also because, unbeknownst to Sib1’s conscious mind, Sib2 was planning to write on Grieg, having joyously re-listened to his captivating “Lyric Pieces” over the weekend. Watch out for the Crazy Ivan, because Sib2 is surfacing.
https://twitter.com/SibRev/status/326380114684309504
I highly doubt I’ll ever need another version of the Lyric Pieces (books 1-10, seemingly randomly numbered opuses…it’s times like these when I understand why some people flee from classical music’s bizarrely byzantine Dewey Decimal System, like octopi slurping themselves into rock cracks) than Leif Ove Andsnes’s 2002 recording. For the record, that surname is 2 vowels, 5 consonants and sounds like when you’re trying to expel a mote of dust from your nostril.
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=50964
Do qualitative factors matter? Andsnes and Grieg are compatriots, being both Norwegian. What’s more, Andsnes actually recorded the album on Grieg’s own piano, which has a very particular tone, at Grieg’s own villa, Troldhaugen (perhaps villas have special significance for Nordic folk: Sib1 and I fondly remember Pippi Longstocking’s fantastical Villa Villekulla). If the name conjures trolls for you, you’re right on the etymology. The name might also ring a wedding bell for some, as Lyric Piece Book 8, Op. 65: no 6 (ink, octopi, ink!), “Wedding Day at Troldhaugen,” is oft-used among the marryin’ kind.
Whether any of that matters or not, I think Andsnes masterfully and uniquely captured a work that receives very little due, in my limited experience, yet to my ears contains such shades of nuance, stormy emotion, lilting melody, intricate phrasework, etc., that it rightfully belongs among great solo keyboard works. Up there with Satie and Debussy. Maybe even Chopin and Schumann? Well, in the conversation, at least. There’s no small amount of nationalistic bias in the classical world when it comes to determining what is a magnum opus and what isn’t, and suffice to say that Norway’s results in such contests do not exactly mirror their Winter Olympics winnings.
But for me, this album is one that I can listen to on repeat for many days straight. Which I am in the midst of doing. Well, actually my dog (whose taste tends toward slow Bach crafted specially for canines) is doing that at the moment at home, continuing what has already been a 48-hour Good Grieg! Fest.
Here’s to Earth Day, the sun’s birthday, Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan, the wondrous octopus, and of course, my telepathically connected sibling.
An update and postscriptum: here is Andsnes playing one of my favorite of the Lyric Pieces:
sibling revelry 