Beautiful! - When it comes to composing for and playing strings, I will go out on the limb and say that no group of musicians does it better than the Scandinavians. This cd caught my attention after hearing Johan Svendsen s Icelandic Melodies. That alone I thought would be worth the discounted Naxos price. But after hearing the rest (especially Grieg s Holberg Suite and Dag Wiren s Serenade for Strings), I can t seem to get this out of my cd changer. It s always nice to find a cd where you get twice the pleasure for half the price!
Wonderful selection of works for strings... - Grieg is unfortunately often credited with having composed only two masterpieces: his single piano concerto and the incidental music to Peer Gynt. I disagree and the work contained on this bargain Naxos release, his Holdberg Suite, ranks up there with the Serenades of Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, and Suk as a masterpiece for string orchestra. On this disc, rather than pair the work up with other compositions by Grieg, Naxos has provided us with some wonderful performances of less frequently heard works for similar forces by fellow Scandinvian composers. The other major pieces here, if you can call them major, are Nielsen s Little Suite in A Minor and Wiren s Serenade. Though composed by Nielsen when he was only 23 the Suite more than hints at the more mature Nielsen of the symphonies, especially in the finale. Wiren s work is much lighter and a delight from start to finish especially in the playful scherzo and the familiar fourth movement - the marcia.Johan Svendsen, a contemporary of Grieg, is represented by five shorter works, all based upon folk songs and all with a very melancholy feel to them. The entire disc is beautifully performed by the the Bournemouth Sinfonietta under the direction of Richard Studt. Also the quality of the recording is up to Naxos usual high standards providing excellent definition and clarity to the performances.