When it was released in 1993, this album of extraordinary songs—by turns passionate, melancholy, poetic, and deliriously romantic—came as a revelation to listeners who’d only known Grieg for Peer Gynt and the Piano Concerto. Von Otter’s performances, supported at the piano with endless sympathy and imagination by her long-term musical collaborator Bengt Forsberg, provide the most delightful imaginable guide to this unfamiliar but enchanting musical world. The songs themselves range from fresh folk-flavored settings of Hans Christian Andersen to the high romance and psychological complexity of the mythic cycle Haugtussa—all brought vibrantly to life by Von Otter’s luminous voice and matchless dramatic flair.
- English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner & Monteverdi Choir
- Antonio Pappano & Barbara Bonney
- Jessye Norman, Marek Janowski & Staatskapelle Dresden
- Henschel Quartett, Jiří Bárta, Magdalena Kožená, Malcolm Martineau & Paul Edmund Davies
- Geoffrey Parsons & Olaf Bär
- Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Edith Wiens, Peter Schreier, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Kammerorchester Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Clifford Grant, Felicity Palmer, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Robert Tear, Ileana Cotrubas, London Symphony Orchestra & Sir Colin Davis
- Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Franz Grundheber, Gabriele Fontana, Helga Dernesch, Peter Seiffert, Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden & Jeffrey Tate