Lise Davidsen (soprano), Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
Decca · 4852254 · 79 minutes
Grieg’s songs rarely get the star treatment his piano music and orchestral works enjoy, which makes this pairing feel like a genuine gift. Davidsen’s voice is built for the biggest Wagnerian stages, but she scales it down here with real tenderness, finding all the intimacy and folk-tinged melancholy that makes these songs so quietly devastating. Andsnes, playing music from his own homeland, gives her exactly the kind of sensitive, unshowy support that lets her do the emotional heavy lifting — and the result earned Gramophone’s Recording of the Month for good reason.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 7th January 2022
- Gramophone Magazine — January 2022 — Recording of the Month
- Record Review — 15th January 2022
- Gramophone Awards — 2022 — Shortlisted – Song
“Davidsen’s grandly sized soprano is headed for Wagner and other dramatic operas, but we know from recital appearances that she is also a very appreciable artist in solo song. Everything here…”
— Financial Times, 7th January 2022,4 out of 5 stars
Stephen Hough (piano)Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Litton
Hyperion · CDA67824 · 68 minutes
Pairing the Grieg and Liszt concertos isn’t exactly a novel idea, but Stephen Hough finds a way to make both sound freshly considered rather than run through on autopilot. He’s got the fireworks when the Liszt demands them, sure, but it’s the way he shapes the Grieg’s folk-inflected lyricism — unhurried, almost conversational — that makes this stand out from the pack. Andrew Litton and the Bergen Philharmonic feel like ideal partners here too, playing this repertoire as if it’s in their blood, which, given the Grieg connection, it practically is.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 24th October 2011
- Building a Library — February 2014 — Modern Choice
- Gramophone Magazine — January 2012 — Editor’s Choice
- Presto Favourites — Recommended Recording
“These two like-minded musicians manage to bring to these much-recorded works not merely thrilling virtuosity and lyrical depth but a Mendelssohnian lightness of touch where needed…Litton,…”
— Classic FM Magazine, February 2012,5 out of 5 stars
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Mariss Jansons
Warner Classics · 5575622 · 58 minutes
Pairing these two concertos is almost too obvious on paper — both in A minor, both born from that particular strain of Romantic yearning — but Andsnes finds real daylight between them rather than treating them as twins. His Grieg has a wonderful lift and rhythmic snap, all those folk-inflected turns given room to breathe, while the Schumann feels more inward and searching, like he’s genuinely thinking his way through the phrases rather than coasting on familiarity. Jansons and the Berlin Phil match him at every turn, and there’s a chamber-music sensitivity to the give and take that makes the whole thing feel less like a showcase and more like a conversation.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — November 2003 — Disc of the Month
- Gramophone Awards — 2004 — Winner – Concerto
- Penguin Guide — Rosette
“faster, fiercer, yet more freely expressive than his 1990 version.”
— Classic FM Magazine, February 2012
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano), Lise Davidsen (soprano), Ann-Helen Moen (soprano), Victoria Nava (soprano), Johannes Weisser (baritone), Håkon Høgemo (Hardanger Fiddle)Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Choirs, Edward Gardner
Chandos · CHSA5190 · 86 minutes
There’s something wonderfully right about hearing Grieg’s Peer Gynt music performed by Norwegian forces on their home turf, and the Bergen Philharmonic plays it with a kind of unforced authority that’s genuinely thrilling. Håkon Høgemo’s Hardanger fiddle threading through the folk-inflected passages adds a layer of authenticity you just don’t get from a standard orchestral reading, grounding the fantastical story in real soil. Bavouzet’s account of the Piano Concerto holds its own alongside all this pageantry too, full of poetry and flash in equal measure, and with Lise Davidsen already sounding like a star in the making, this set captures a lot of talent in one place at exactly the right moment.
Awards:
- Presto Recording of the Week — 5th January 2018
- Gramophone Awards — 2018 — Shortlisted – Concerto
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2018
“Gardner and the splendid team tackle the whole work with all the verve and drama one could possible want…But perhaps most illuminating is the contribution of Håkon Høgemo on the Hardanger fiddle,…”
— BBC Music Magazine, March 2018,4 out of 5 stars
Stephen Hough (piano)
Hyperion · CDA68070 · 72 minutes
Grieg wrote these little pieces over decades, and they’re deceptively modest — folk tunes, wedding processions, trolls, that one heartbreakingly simple nocturne — the kind of music that can turn saccharine in the wrong hands. Hough sidesteps all of that by refusing to oversell any of it; he lets the harmonic surprises and the homesickness in these pages speak for themselves rather than leaning on rubato to do the emotional work. Seventy-two minutes of Grieg from a pianist this refined could easily feel like too much, but somehow it never does.
Awards:
- Sunday Times — 2015 — Albums of the Year
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2015
- Gramophone Awards — 2016 — Shortlisted – Instrumental
“Hough is up there with the best; may we never take his excellence for granted. ..Hough’s detachment – it’s a small thing – is also telling in its way, the detail and overview consistently in…”
— Gramophone Magazine, June 2015
Andrey Gugnin (piano)
Hyperion · CDA68424 · 76 minutes
What strikes me about Gugnin’s Grieg is how he treats the Lyric Pieces as genuine miniatures rather than salon filler — each repeat gets a fresh shading, a slightly different weight, so nothing on this 76-minute program ever feels like padding. The Ballade, that strange and searching set of variations Grieg wrote after losing both parents in the same year, comes across with real gravity here, and it’s a smart, generous piece of programming next to the sunnier Holberg Suite. Gugnin clearly has an ear for the small gesture, and that’s exactly what this repertoire demands.
Awards:
- International Classical Music Awards — 2025 — Nominated – Solo Instrument
- Gramophone Awards — 2025 Finalists — Piano
“Any monotony in repeats is avoided by Gugnin’s hypersensitive touch…A well-placed collection of multifacted jewels.”
— BBC Music Magazine, August 2024,5 out of 5 stars
Denis Kozhukhin (piano)
Pentatone · PTC5186734 · 65 minutes
There’s something quietly clever about pairing these two composers, since both built entire miniature worlds out of what are essentially character sketches for the piano — little songs without words, moods captured in a few pages rather than argued out over a whole sonata. Kozhukhin doesn’t overplay the sentiment either, which is the right call: he lets the Grieg feel folk-rooted and unpolished where it needs to, and keeps the Mendelssohn light on its feet rather than syrupy. Sixty-five minutes with this record feels less like a piano recital and more like flipping through someone’s diary, one small entry at a time.
Awards:
- Presto Editor’s Choice — June 2019
- Gramophone Magazine — September 2019 — Recording of the Month
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2019
“Kozhukhin plays Mendelssohn with an almost business-like elegance…the mechanics of this pianist’s impressive hands trump the expressivity of an imagined singer’s voice. Grieg’s straightforwardly…”
— BBC Music Magazine, September 2019,3 out of 5 stars(Performance) /4 out of 5 stars(Recording)
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)
Warner Classics · 5572962 · 68 minutes
Grieg’s Lyric Pieces can feel like miniature diary entries — some are barely a minute long, sketches of a mood or a passing thought rather than grand statements. Andsnes treats them with exactly that intimacy, never inflating them into something they’re not, and the quieter pieces especially breathe with a kind of unhurried Norwegian air. There’s a stillness in his phrasing that lets the harmonic surprises Grieg tucks into even the simplest melodies land with real quiet force.
Awards:
- Building a Library — May 2007 — First Choice
- Gramophone Awards — 2002 — Winner – Instrumental
- Gramophone Magazine — April 2002 — Editor’s Choice
- Penguin Guide — Rosette
“Andsnes penetrates the psyche of this music, and his playing of consummate artistry and insight. Not only does he have keen poetic feeling but magisterial pianistic finesse.”
— BBC Music Magazine, Proms 2007
