Kjell Baekkelund plays Grieg and Dean Dixon conducts Tchaikovsky

A couple more transfers for requests that were made sometime ago. Man oh man, I'm starting to develop quite a backlog!

First off, we have the Grieg piano concerto played by the very, very fne pianist Kjell Baekkelund. This release was part of the series of recording made in Oslo for RCA and released on Camden, Victrola and licensed to the National Recording Society for distribution through non traditional channels like supermarkets and drug stores. This particular recording is led with great authority by Odd Gruner-Hegge, a Grieg interpreter whose only peer was probably Beecham and maybe Barbirolli. The Grieg is one of the most glorious of war horses and is often over played to the point of auto pilot play but, in this instance, pianist and conductor bring a certain freshness to the score while the latter takes pains to point out superb orchestral detail. For my money, this is one of the better Grieg's out there.

The "symphony" part of the program features a conductor who I've long taken a special interest in, namely Dean Dixon. Tchaikovsky's Pathetique symphony is given a very broad reading, actually rather expansive, and as typical with Dixon, there are no mannerisms and/or hidden emotions that are pulled way the hell out of whack. This conductor simply lets the music unfold naturally with minimal interference - with this particular symphony, this may or may not totally work for the listener. For a contrast of styles, I suggest a listener comparison of Mitropoulos v. Dixon! This Everest issue identifies the orchestra as the "Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra,"but declines to mention which "radio" orchestra. I've seen reference to the orchestra as being the Cologne or Hessian (Frankfurt am Main) and I'm inclined to say Hessian since Dixon was general music director there for a number of years. The orchestra has great discipline and it is obvious that this is far from being a run through. Whomever the orchestra is, the body of musicians play quite well with sensitivity and refinement.

I will be offering my take on Dixon's "Scottish" symphony of Mendelssohn shortly. reDiscovery offered it during the summer but it was not a transfer from the Nonesuch lp. It is a very, very romantic iterpretation and the contrast between it and the Boult (offered here on my blog) is beyond striking. In fact, it is rather mind blowing! But more on that later.

Both recording are stereo and available in FLAC format.

DOWNLOAD GRIEG

DOWNLOAD TCHAIKOVSKY (Link fixed)

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No 2 with Kjell Baekkelund and Oivin Fjeldstad

Here's the other National Record Academy Club  (NRS-1) posting from me: Kjell Baekkelund performing the fabled Rachmaninoff 2nd Piano Concerto with Maestro Fjeldstad and the Oslo Philharmonic.

I must confess to knowing next to nothing about this pianist. Here's what I got off of Wikipedia:

"Kjell Bækkelund (May 6, 1930 – May 13, 2004) was a Norwegian classical pianist, born in Oslo. He was known as a child prodigy. Bækkelund made his debut with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of eight. His final years of study took place at Stockholm, with Professor Boon, and at Vienna, with Professor Seidlhofer. In 1953 Bækkelund won first prize in the first Scandinavian Musicians' Festival held at Trondheim; and in London the same year, he was awarded the Harriet Cohen Medal as "the finest pianist of the year"."  Impressive!

I'm not quite sure if Baekkelund had an international career but what I can say is that this performance is no-nonsense with two musicians who had apparently worked quite a bit together and artistically were "in sync." I would call this a rather straightfaced, honest performance, and probably as good an introduction to this masterpiece as there is out there. At some point I should transfer my RCA record of Baekkelund performing the Grieg Concerto with Odd Gruner Hegge conducting. Side two on that LP features music from Peer Gynt. Surprisingly, I've not listened to that record...with an all Norwegian cast, its probably as definitive as it gets!

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