Edvard Grieg: The Cello Works – Transcriptions and Songs

Edvard Grieg, arguably the most popular composer ever to emerge from the Scandinavian peninsula, made substantial contributions to the chamber music canon with his violin sonatas rather than with his works for cello: only one sonata for cello and piano (Op. 36) was written for this line-up. Daniel Müller-Schott, always driven to expand the musical repertoire for his instrument and with a keen sense of transcriptions, for this all-Grieg album – which is his 20th album on the label Orfeo – hence transcribed and recorded for the first time the violin sonata in C minor, Op. 45, No. 3, for the cello. Accompanied by his long-standing duo-partner Herbert Schuch on piano, the short Intermezzo in A minor (EG 115) guides us to the second part of the album, where the duo presents selected songs of various characters transcribed for cello and piano.

Reviews

Gramophone Magazine November 2022

“Müller-Schott has chosen a quintet of unrelentingly dark songs but this is apt for such an acutely dramatic programme. All five songs are astonishingly beautiful, but my favourite is ‘Den Forældreløse’ (‘The Orphan’), with a Schubertian richness that the musicians play with mesmeric profundity.

The Strad November 2022

“Cello originals and borrowings played with great allure… The instrument’s cantabile qualities ensure that the selection of Grieg song transcriptions works equally well, with Müller-Schott presenting a nicely wide-ranging choice.