My eldest daughter likes mint tea because that was served in the after school care when she was little. I feel the same way about the Norwegian composer Edward Grieg's piano concerto in a-minor. It is the sound of a time that is long gone, of people who are not here any more. For my inner eye I never see the dramatic Norwegian landscape, but the mellow islands of Denmark on a summer evening. The concerto was actually also written in Denmark, but I am sure that Grieg, like all Norwegians was thinking of his own beautiful country.
The version has to be Sviatoslav Richter and the Monte-Carlo orchestra. That was the one that we listened to back then. The concert is high romantic style, and the other side of the record was Schumann's piano concert in the same key and the same style. We preferred Grieg.
But just to spice it up a little is here another fine version with the very lovely Khatia Buniatishvili.
I hope you all hold up out there in the closed down world. I will have to find a way to work with my two temperamental daughters around, but I already have the first sketch to the next Phill page. All the best to all of you.
Katharsisdrill
