This disc is wholly delightful. Perhaps the most exciting “find” is Geirr Tveitt’s orchestration of the Ballade, which sounds amazingly like–Geirr Tveitt! It’s gorgeous. Tveitt maximizes the color and contrast in each unfolding variation, giving the music much more variety than most pianists manage to project when playing the original version. The Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Bjarte Engeset plays the work magnificently, clearly relishing its melodic freshness and sonic allure.
The other items are more familiar, including the popular Norwegian Dances in Hans Sitt’s vividly idiomatic scoring. Oistein Sommerfeldt’s arrangement of three of the Slåtter pieces also is a very appealing novelty, one apparently new to disc. The program concludes with Bell Ringing, one of Grieg’s most evocative and impressionistic pieces. There’s no need to go on at length: everyone loves this music (or should), and the combination of spontaneous, winning interpretations, terrific playing, great sound, and the rarity of some of the arrangements makes this offering completely irresistible. [3/30/2007]
