Greg Bright wrote:

>Now I have no idea whether this recording is available on CD, but I would
>certainly recommend at least listening to the RCA recording of Percy
>Grainger's piano roll (1919) Vorsetzer performance with the 1978 Sydney SO,
>John Hopkins, cond.  Grainger's original roll was a tour 'd force piano and
>orchestral reduction all in one.  All the orchestral holes in the roll had
>to be blocked out.

Believe it or not, I got the above recording at a second-hand shop just a
few weeks ago for the paltry sum of AUS $4.00

I picked up another Grainger/Grieg Concerto the other day, this time on
Vanguard Classics.  It's a live performance with the Aarhus Municipal
Orchestra, Per Drier, conducting, recorded on Feb 25, 1957.

Quoting from the liner notes: "...  the beginning of the performance
contained many wrong notes and inaccuracies in precision ...  the
recording contained some extremely expressive playing that made it
unique...  [Harold Schonberg] said that although the playing was for
the most part extraordinary, the inaccuracies might mar the reputation
of a great pianist" and hence the record was witheld.

The playing itself is dazzling.... and I much prefer the Vanguard, live
performance, to the piano-roll recreation; anyone else have comments?

Another performance not previously mentioned yet, which I find positively
electrifying, is Olli Mustonen with the SFS/Blomstedt.  However, the
playing is probably not for everyone...  phrasing is short and choppy, and
Mustonen's extreme usage of dynamics was an eye opener!  (Often going from
pp to ff in a few notes..) The first time I heard his playing, I was amazed
at its expressiveness, and thought that he must have been "adding" to the
score.  However, surely enough, they were marked in the score, and I had
just never noticed them.

However, the CD is not good value for money.  It's coupled with Chopin's
1st concerto; Mustonen does the same dynamic variation & phrasing with the
melodic lines as he did with the Grieg, and I must say that there are fewer
annoyances than listening to a melody fade in and out of oblivion when it
should be sustained.  Thus, the second half of the CD is pretty much
wasted.

Final comment, though off the topic of Grieg, was that a live performance
of Beethoven's 3rd concerto with Mustonen soloist, was broadcast on radio
(ABC-FM) a few months ago, and again, Mustonen did his tricks with dynamics
and phrasing (which, like the Chopin, annoyed me greatly).  Is this a trait
of the pianist? Does he play solo works the same why?

Linus Chang