LDV126

25 VANESSA WAGNER In the music you’ve recorded here, Tchaikovsky and Grieg continue to use a language inherited from Mendelssohn and his Songs without Words. How did you tackle these pieces, apparently simple, even naïve, yet which can be used to say such profound things? In fact, I did record some of Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words before deciding not to include them in the album because of time constraints. But the programme clearly maintains that same spirit of wordless poetry. The brevity of these pieces allows the pianist to avoid going overboard, becoming overly sentimental or even mawkish – the sort of effusions that are harder to restrain in Grieg’s Concerto, for example. Here I visualise landscapes, Nordic light, a natural world in which you can sense a great solitude. I also recall images of Grieg’s study in his house in Norway, which I’ve visited, and of the countryside around it. I wasn’t trying to achieve anything ‘spectacular’ or ‘folky’, but a nostalgic tone. All the same, pieces like Wedding Day at Troldhaugen and some of the numbers in The Seasons do invite player and listener to enjoy a delightful exuberance that takes us back to a more down-to-earth, concrete, lively atmosphere.

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