Grieg - Songs
Katarina Karnéus (mezzo-soprano) & Julius Drake (piano)
There can never be too many recordings of Grieg's masterpiece, Haugtussa ('The Mountain Maid')… In the mezzo-soprano of Katarina Karnéus, Haugtussa becomes a darkly erotic tale…
Grieg - Songs
Katarina Karnéus (mezzo-soprano) & Julius Drake (piano)
Purchase product
There can never be too many recordings of Grieg's masterpiece, Haugtussa ('The Mountain Maid')… In the mezzo-soprano of Katarina Karnéus, Haugtussa becomes a darkly erotic tale…
About
Hyperion is delighted to present a disc of Grieg’s songs. Grieg’s sheer range as a song-writer—from the shortest settings, folk-like and immediate, to the depth of distinctive inspiration that runs through every bar of the major cycle Haugtussa—places him without question among the finest masters of the genre. Arne Garborg’s verse-novel Haugtussa created a deep impression on Grieg. The resulting marriage of poetry and music is one of the miracles of the nineteenth-century song-cycle genre. Many regard this work as Grieg’s masterpiece: it is certainly one of the greatest song-cycles for the female voice ever written, revealing the composer at the very height of his powers.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
Proms 2008
There can never be too many recordings of Grieg's masterpiece, Haugtussa ('The Mountain Maid')… In the mezzo-soprano of Katarina Karnéus, Haugtussa becomes a darkly erotic tale…
2010
Anne Sofie von Otter's Grieg recital for DG (see above) did much to encourage singers outside Scandinavia to bring back to the concert platform – and the public again to listen to – songs which their great-grandparents knew well but their parents had almost forgotten. Now another front-ranking Swedish mezzo-soprano has recorded core components of the Grieg song repertoire. Like her compatriot, Katarina Karnéus includes the Op 67 'Mountain Maid' cycle, the Ibsen settings, the six German lyrics of Op 48 and the early Hans Christian Andersen 'Melodies of the Heart', adding, suitably, the less well known 'The Princess' to words by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson.
Compare Karnéus, von Otter and Kirsten Flagstad (one of at least three recordings) in Haugtussa.
Karnéus and Julius Drake are all over the imagery, scenery and sexuality of Garborg's verse novel in thrilling and well worked detail. Flagstad may appear at first hearing to be limiting herself to heroic declamation and her pianist (regular collaborator Edwin McArthur) just mapping out the written notes, but her sheer joy in singing her own language, and the subtlety of her pointing of the text (a half-smile, a raised eyebrow) and cunning use of her large voice make their own points.
Von Otter has something of both sides – a weightier tone and more reserve than Karnéus but a much wider colour range than Flagstad chooses to deploy – and Bengt Forsberg is a magician in these accompaniments.
Elsewhere the Karnéus performances are good and lively in the Scandinavian lyrics (a passionate 'Jeg elsker dig', a good range of moods in the Ibsen settings), more formal in the German settings.
All Saints Church in Finchley, north London, sounds especially resonant here, not everywhere an advantage in such text-oriented settings. Lots to enjoy and celebrate then, but don't ignore the competition.
October 2008
The Swedish mezzo has illustrious rivals but delights in Grieg's tuneful songs… in Haugtussa. Karnéus and Julius Drake are all over the imagery, scenery and sexuality of Garborg's verse novel in thrilling and well worked detail.
11th July 2008
Grieg's aim was to invest the Norwegian art song with the status - national, as well as aesthetic - of the German lied. That he succeeded is borne out by every track of this beautifully programmed disc...Karnéus's performances are thrillingly awash with grand passions and high voltage drama. Drake is faultless.
5th July 2008
Karnéus is a singer of natural warmth and spontaneity who possesses what Grieg called the gift of "reading between the lines" and "interpreting a half-told tale"… A glorious disc.
