The playing of the Oslo Camerata here is uniformly excellent: vibrant, rhythmically taut, and full of life, though the Holberg Suite really comes into its own when played by a full symphonic string section, as opposed to a smaller group. Stephan Barratt-Due secures swifter tempos than we usually hear from larger ensembles, but at some sacrifice of the music’s sheer charm (particularly in the concluding Rigaudon). Barratt-Due also increases the (limited) opportunities for contrast in the primarily slow and quiet remainder of the program by separating the Two Elegiac Melodies Op. 34–a smart move–but he curiously omits the first of the Two Lyric Pieces Op. 68 in favor of Ase’s Death from Peer Gynt. Since the disc only plays for a bit more than 51 minutes, there was no earthly reason to leave anything out.
So if you want Grieg’s complete music for string orchestra (and I assume everyone has the Peer Gynt music anyway), leaving aside performance issues and the question of price, the reference recording from Bergen on BIS remains the way to go. The fact that it’s also an SACD may or may not count as an additional point in its favor. And speaking of missing items, the Naxos booklet includes only half of the notes as well, a printing error I assume will be corrected in due course! Still, if the program suits your fancy, these are recommendable performances, well engineered to boot.
