Thinking about sound: Grieg's Lyric Pieces on a modern piano from Alexander Ullmann & on historic pianos with unequal temperament from Ziad Kreidy

Grieg: Lyric Pieces, Op. 71, Moods, Op. 73, Peer Gynt Suite, Op. 46, transcriptions of Songs, Op. 41 - Alexander Ullmann - Rubicon Classics RCD 1129

Grieg: Lyric Pieces, Op. 65, Op. 68, Op. 73 - Ziad Kreidy (historic piano) - Bandcamp

Two different approaches to Grieg's piano music - on a modern piano, played with intense poetic sensibility and on a selection of historic pianos with unequal temperament tuning that brings its own magic

Two recent discs have rather set me thinking about what sound we want for a particular composer when it comes to piano pieces. Do we always want the super-charged modern grand, or is something more period appropriate. 

And then there is a question of temperament.

Edvard Grieg's own Steinway grand piano from 1892 still exists at his former home, Troldhaugen and is still use, though the museum's website does not give much in the way of detail about the instrument and its tuning. However, Leif Ove Andsnes recorded a selection of Grieg's Lyric Pieces on it in 2002 for Warner Classics. 

The Lyric Pieces are central to two new recordings of Grieg's piano music. Grieg wrote 66 Lyric Pieces in total, publishing them in ten volumes from 1867 (Op. 12) to 1901 (Op. 71). 

This is music in which Leipzig-trained Grieg managed to encapsulate the music of his native land, mixing folk idioms with compositional techniques learned in Germany, yet with a freshness that is disarming. 

Into my inbox recently came two very different recordings of Grieg's piano music, focusing on the Lyric Pieces. Alexander Ullmann takes a modern, poetic approach  on Rubicon that will appeal to many, whilst musicologist Ziad Kreidy turns to historic pianos with unequal temperament tuning to very different effect on Bandcamp. This is not Kreidy's first venture into this territory, and last year he issued a recording of Grieg's Lyric Pieces, Opp. 12, 38, 43 & 47 on an Érard Upright Piano from 1867, also on Bandcamp.

Pianist Alexander Ullmann, who first came to international attention in 2011 after winning the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in Budapest, has recorded book 10 of the Lyric Pieces (Op. 71), along with Moods, op. 73, his own transcription of the first Peer Gynt Suite, and a selection of song transcriptions for Rubicon Classics. Ullmann's disc was recorded at the church of St Silas the Martyr, Kentish Town, so we have to presume that Ullmann recorded on a modern piano of his own choosing. At least, the recording sounds that way.

Lyric Pieces, Op. 71 (Book 10) date from a period when Grieg's style was becoming more harmonically complex, influenced partly by folk music. Op.71 dates from 1901, and in 1902/3, Grieg would produce his Slåtter, Op. 72, the Norwegian peasant dances that allow the distinctive folk idioms greater reign. These would be followed by Stemninger (Moods), Op 73 which seem to be more developed that the Lyric Pieces, perhaps going back to the sort of Etudes that Grieg would have known in Leipzig. They were his last complete set of new pieces to appear in print before his death in 1907. Listening to this recording of them, it is difficult to believe Grieg when he wrote to his friend the Danish organist Gottfred Matthison-Hansen, "There are just a couple of old Norwegian pieces that I am pleased with, but otherwise my heart was not in them".

Not everyone wants to listen to a complete disc of Lyric Pieces (Leif Ove Andsnes' disc includes 24) and Ullmann's approach, mixing the different pieces, works well and I imagine his record company was pleased to be able to include a name as instantly recognisable as Peer Gynt. His poetic approach to the piano should please many, and his disc provides a lovely single programme, bringing Grieg into the 21st century yet still reflecting the folk influences that are essential to the music.

In complete contrast, Ziad Kreidy is a French-Lebanese concert pianist, composer, and musicologist who has a particular interest in rare historic pianos. His disc on Bandcamp features Grieg's Lyric Pieces, Op. 65 (from 1896), Op. 68 (from 1898-9) and Op. 71 (from 1901) played on a trio of upright pianos from the early 20th century, each tuned using Neidhardt’s unequal temperament Für eine große Stadt, giving each key a distinct character and creating a historically informed soundscape. Johann Georg Neidhardt (1680-1759) was a German organist and theorist who proposed various temperaments including Für eine große Stadt (For a large town) from 1732.

Each set of Lyric Pieces is played on a different instrument, though all three were recorded in the same place, at Claude Baudry’s workshop in the Paris region, the pianos and microphones were placed in the same location for each session.

We have Op. 65 on a Rönisch (1915), Op. 68 on a Feurich (1918), and Op. 71 on a Steinway (1924). Comparing the two pianists, the sense of touch is very different along with the tone quality. Not everyone will appreciate the period pianos yet the sound-world Kreidy conjures has a bit of magic to it. Each note has a particular quality, giving the performances a sort of shimmer. Whereas Ullmann utilises his modern piano to give us suave, sophisticated phrasing. Both pianists reflect the folk-idioms of the pieces, but by putting us in period dress, somehow Kreidy gives us a more naive, folk world, whilst Ullmann is very much of the salons where Clara Schumann was doyenne.

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