I bought this recording on the strength of the reputation of the orchestra. Greig's music is not my first love pleasant as it is probably through over exposure, so much of it has become too well known as theme tunes for TV and Film ever since my childhood. That said, many of the tunes are delicately beautiful and here in the UK, who will ever forget the languorous theme tune of "The Railway Children"?
BIS produced an excellent 6-disc survey of Greig's music on SACD a few years ago and in all honesty it is hard to see how that set could be improved upon. Some were even recorded in BIS's DSD halcyon days. Now Audite promise a 5-disc survey of which this is the first to be released; sadly it is not DSD.
Initial hearings have been tinged with disappointment. As expected the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra's playing is exemplary - as you would have expected - but their playing here comes across to me as 'big, bold and brash', not at all how I imagined this gentle reflective music should be played.
The recording doesn't help, the dynamic range has (apparently) been compressed so that all passages soft and loud sound roughly at the same level in the listening room. The upper strings are particularly harsh on the ears. Who, one wonders, is the target audience for such a presentation as not many casual 'background music' listeners will be stumping up for SACDs?
Perhaps Aadland is better attuned to Grieg's musical intentions than I but even so Audite have not covered themselves in glory with this loud but 'flat' sounding recording. Other listeners may well view this to be a tad unfair.... ?
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