Grieg Lyric Pieces album review – Feltsman brings a probing flexibility that transforms this music

Russian-American pianist Vladimir Feltsman’s love of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces dates back to his childhood in Moscow and his first piano teacher, EM Timakin, who introduced him to the works. Part homage, then, this comprehensive survey draws on the accumulated wisdom of over 60 years in a set that abounds with interpretative imagination.

Vladimir Feltsman: Grieg – Lyric Pieces

Feltsman approaches Grieg as if it were Schumann, bringing a probing flexibility that transforms this music into more than just occasional salon pieces. Book I’s famous Arietta, for example, responds eagerly to his supple sense of rubato. He also points up the composer’s cosmopolitan influences, with a Nocturne that could almost be Chopin, a Scherzo redolent of Saint-Saëns and a Nordic Valse-Impromptu that could only be by Grieg.

Up-tempo showpieces are dispatched with theatrical flair. Book II’s Leaping Dance cuts a hoppity-skippity caper while his Hallings, those fast-paced Norwegian folk dances, are full of pungent harmonies and earthy rhythms. Feltsman’s March of the Trolls, steadier than most, builds a menacing head of steam to equal a Mussorgsky picture. However, it’s in the quieter pieces – jewels such as Melancholy, Homesickness or the late Summer Evening – where lightness of touch and pristine articulation pay dividends.

For authority and inspiration, Feltsman can stand alongside Gilels and Andsnes, although he makes entirely individual choices. Brightly recorded and played almost without breaks, these consistently surprising accounts make you fall in love with Grieg’s endearing miniatures all over again.

Listen on Apple Music (above) or Spotify