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A Dream
To me, Grieg's music is very special. He uses so much color in his music like a great painter. Listening to his music makes me see the beautiful fjords and the mysterious mid-summer night of Norway. It also gives me a taste of the lives and emotions of the people lived there. His songs are treasures of art song literature. He is definitely the greatest composer Norway has ever offered.
This is my first CD of Bodil Arnese (soprano) and I just love her voice! It is clear, soft, colorful, warm and with a bit of melancholy. She sang with deep emotion and very good technique. I think her voice and the way she sings suit very well to Grieg's songs. On the piano is Erling R. Eriksen, who beautifully created the atmosphere of each song. I liked the interpretation very much and also the collection of songs. The CD has been very useful for me to understand and interpret Grieg's songs.
I really recommend Grieg music lovers to get this CD.
[Friday, November 10, 2006]
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A great songwriter of love and the land.
Although they are consciously imbued with the Norwegian folk spirit, Grieg's songs are not a million miles from German lieder, and the composer's Goethe setting 'Zur Rosenzeit' (The Time of Roses) is as harrowingly melancholic as anything by Schubert. Mostly, however, Grieg seems to breathe a crisper, fresher, lighter air. He excels in evoking natural phenomena - the ripples of a stream, the song of a bird, the grandeur of a mountain valley - and the movements of the human heart - the quickening inspired by first love, the despair wrought by absence and loss. His great power comes from having the two reflect or embody each other, creating an idealised pastoral conscious of the seasons and loss. So even though most of the poems set are songs of love and nature; and although Grieg can exult in romantic ecstasy; there is an underlying sadness throughout, skillfully rendered in this recording by accompanist Erling R. Eriksen. Grieg was notoriously dismissive of singers, but he would be hard-pushed to fault Bodil Arnesen's delicate strength.
[Thursday, March 22, 2001]
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beautiful voice, delightful music
i bought this based on good reviews i'd seen elsewhere on the net. these little songs are delightful, and the piano accompaniment is clean and lively. the real treat here, of course, is bodil arnesen's voice- strong and gutsy on track #7 (tak for dit rad), soaring on track #10 (sloveigs sang), and joyous #22 (i liden hojt deroppe). naxos has included a huge set of liner notes with all the texts in norwegian and english. it's a nice touch. 70 minutes of beautiful singing at a bargain price. another winner for naxos, and i hope to hear more from ms. arnesen on naxos in the future.
[Saturday, July 08, 2000]
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