A new solo album from British pianist, Alexander Ullman, features a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining selection of music by Edvard Grieg - ‘The Chopin of the North’

Edvard Grieg: Songs, Moods and Lyric Pieces; Alexander Ullman; Rubicon Classics 
Reviewed by Tony Cooper (31 October 2025)

The prize of Ullman’s album, though, is his transcription of Peer Gynt Suite, No.1, drawing out the colour of the orchestra from the piano perhaps more so than in the composer’s own version.  

First coming to international attention in 2011 after winning the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in Budapest, Alexander Ullman has performed at such prestigious venues as Vienna’s Musikverein with the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria under the baton of Hans Graf, the Salzburg Grosser Saal with the Mozarteum Orchestra (Patrick Hahn), the Sichuan Symphony Orchestra (Darrell Ang), Kristiansand Symfoniorkester (Julian Rachlin) and the SWR Sinfonierrchester (Joseph Bastian) whilst returning to the Sofia Philharmonic under Jonathan Bloxham.  

Other recent highlights of this globetrotting pianist include making his début at the prestigious Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, the Klavierfest Ruhr, concerto appearances with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta (under Ola Rudner), Sofia Philharmonic and Filharmonie Brno (Dennis Russell Davies), the Symphony of India Orchestra (Mikel Toms), a two-piano recital with Teo Gheorghiu at the Freiburg Festival in Switzerland while undertaken a plethora of recitals in the UK, Italy and the Netherlands.  

However, it was in the spring of 2019 that Ullman cut his first album for Rubicon featuring Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite and Prokofiev’s Six Pieces from Cinderella as well as Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Firebird suites which received rave reviews. In 2022, the label released a second album featuring Franz Liszt’s first and second piano concertos along with his B minor piano sonata with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Litton. 

The winner of the 2017 International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht, Ullman has appeared with orchestras all over the show including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Budapest Radio Orchestra and Korean Symphony Orchestra as well as the New Jersey, Fort Worth and Montreal symphony orchestras working with such wonderful and well-loved conductors as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Giancarlo Guerrero, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Valentin Uryupin and Cristian Măcelaru.  

Recently, Ullman made his début across the USA, China and South Korea and has performed consistently in London at the Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, the Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall while farther afield he has appeared at the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Gewandhaus (Leipzig), Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), Kennedy Center (Washington DC), MUPA (Budapest), Seoul Arts Center, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center and the NCPA in Beijing. He has also participated in the Nottingham and Oxford international piano series and is regularly heard on BBC Radio 3, France Musique and MDR Klassik. 

Anyhow, with all Ullman’s globetrotting activities, he still found time to get back in the studio recording his third album for Rubicon Classics featuring music by Grieg, who, by the way, attended the opening of the Bayreuth Festival in 1876 witnessing the première of The Ring of the Nibelung sharing the red carpet with the likes of Tchaikovsky, Bruckner and Camille Saint-Saëns. And just like Chopin, he was particularly adept at crafting exquisite miniatures rather than large-scale orchestral works. 

Although, saying that, his Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.16, of 1868, duly remains one of the most popular of its kind in the repertoire today but it’s really in the poetic musical expression of Grieg’s smaller-scale solo compositions that are truly pleasing and shine especially at the hands of Ullman who most definitely prepared and crafted a wonderful new transcription of Peer Gynt Suite, No.1, Op.46, especially for this recording. 

Composed as incidental music to Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt, Grieg’s realization is widely reckoned to be his most famous work and I feel that Ullman captures so well the spirit of the composer’s sensitive and emotive writing bringing to the fore the colour and texture of the original orchestration whilst showing off the craft and expertise of his playing and, indeed, his interpretation. 

The suite contains such well-known and well-loved pieces as ‘Morning Mood’, used as the prelude to act 4 and known for its beautiful and calming melody while ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ its iconic and easily recognizable theme, used extensively in popular culture, depicts the protagonist, Peer Gynt, tiptoeing through a hall filled with trolls before a chase ensues as they wake up.  

Known for its dramatic build-up, the piece starts softly while gradually increasing in speed and volume to create a sense of escalating chaos and frenzy that Ullman conveys with determination and articulated imagination thus painting an wonderful abstract picture of this fulfilling scene. A couple of quiet and moving pieces make up the suite - ‘Death of Åse’ and ‘Anitra’s Dance’ - fitting so well the overall picture and atmosphere of this most dramatic and appealing work. 

As an aside, I fondly recall London-based Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet) founded by Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Anton Dolin in 1950, mounting a brilliant production of Peer Gynt regularly presented at the Royal Festival Hall. 

The half-dozen songs from Piano Transcriptions of Songs, Op.41, comprising ‘Lullaby’, ‘Little Haakon’, ‘I love thee’, ‘She is So White’, ‘The Princess’ and ‘To Spring’ are admirably played and so, too, are the seven pieces of Moods, dating from 1907, probably the last music that Grieg penned, comprising ‘Resignation ‘, ‘Scherzo-Impromptu’, ‘A ride at night’, ‘Popular Air’, ‘Study (Hommage à Chopin)’ and ‘Students’ Serenade’.  

The last song of Moods - ‘The mountaineer’s song’- is so memorable and comforting, contrasting dramatic musical moments alongside melodic motifs thereby highlighting the emotional intensity of the piece and summing up at the same time the majestic (and chilling) grandeur of Norway’s breathtaking mountainous terrain which I’m so fond and familiar with.  

The final selection of Ullman’s new recording of Grieg offers a captivating selection of songs from Lyric Pieces, Book 10, Op.71, which are extremely lovely, relaxing and engaging impressionistic-sounding pieces, peppered here and there by traditional Scandinavian folk-tunes for good measure. Comprising ‘Once Upon a Time’, ‘Summer’s eve’, ‘Puck’, ‘Peace of the Woods’, ‘Norwegian Dance’, ‘Gone’ and ‘Remembrances’, they’re very pleasing to the ear thereby putting the icing on the cake of this fine and evenly recorded CD by Rubicon that will surely offer warmth, peace and tranquillity to any listener cuddled up by the fire on a cold winter’s night - maybe with a G&T! 

As Grieg’s music is densely rich with Norwegian folk idioms as vividly illustrated and so well represented in Lyric Pieces, the well-respected conductor, Hans von Bülow - a key advocate of Wagner who conducted the first performance of Tristan und Isolde in Munich in 1865 - referenced Grieg as being ‘the Chopin of the North’. I don’t think anyone would wish to argue with that. 

Grieg - Alexander Ullman

Rubicon Classics (RCD1129)
Edvard Grieg 1843-1907  

Piano Transcriptions of Songs, Op.41
 1. Lullaby
 2. Little Haakon
 3. I love thee
 4. She is So White
 5. The Princess
 6. To Spring
Moods, Op. 73
 7. Resignation
 8. Scherzo-Impromptu
 9. A ride at night
 10. Popular Air
 11. Study, (Hommage à Chopin)
 12. Students’ Serenade
 13. The mountaineer’s song
Peer Gynt Suite No.1, Op.46 (transcribed: Ullman)
 14. Morning Mood
 15. Death of Åse
 16. Anitra’s Dance
 17. In the Hall of the Mountain King
Lyric Pieces Book 10, Op.71
 18. Once upon a time
 19. Summer’s eve
 20. Puck
 21. Peace of the Woods
 22. Norwegian Dance
 23. Gone
 24. Remembrances

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