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When Chandos started this edition, it was estimated that 25 CDs would be required to do Percy Grainger complete. Between 1996 and 2003, 19 numbered volumes were issued, apparently ending (?) the project; those 19 were previously issued together in a box. THIS newer set from 2021 reissues those, with 2 additional CDs, recorded in 2007 and 2012 which do not appear to have been numbered as part of the original series. So, is this all of Grainger? Certainly not, but what else is still out there is anybody's guess. I have read that identifying all of Grainger's compositions would probably be an impossible task as many have gone missing over the years. Some only exist as piano rolls at his museum in Australia.
Grainger's works can be, sort of roughly, evenly divided between his arrangements of English & Danish folk music - of which he was a major early collector - and his original items, which tend to resemble English folk music. Grainer developed what he called "elastic scoring", and he wrote the same material over and over again in different settings (or, what he referred to as "dished up") - piano, orchestral, wind band, vocal, etc. This means purchasers of this set are going to hear the same pieces over and over again but in different settings. This is not as bad as it sounds as most of them are very good and interesting -- some of his wind band scores are among the best ever composed by anyone. Grainger further made many arrangements of music by other composers (especially for piano, as he was a concert pianist himself), only one disc of which, for wind band, is included in this set, and it appears there is probably a lot more of that sort of material out there waiting to be discovered. I have identified several works which he "dished up" for piano and recorded himself many years ago, but which are not on these discs, so there is likely a lot more out there to go.
So, does anyone other than Percy Grainger nuts really want all of this? That is up to the listener; I, for one, think it is all wonderful. Many of these orchestra and orchestra/vocal discs are conducted by Richard Hickox who does an outstanding job. The band items are directed by Timothy Reynish and Clark Rundell, who know what they are about, too. The main pianist heard is Penelope Thwaites, a Grainger expert. The audio quality is excellent. One need not concern themselves about not getting less than top-notch performances in wonderful sound -- it's all here. There is also a fine book included, over 200 pages long, describing the music and providing the lyrics to all the vocal works, of which there are many (I have noted that this booklet provides the same texts as came with the original CDs, but in somewhat abbreviated or altered form). In short, this release is near perfect. For Grainger fans, get it while you can.
Over the years, there have been numerous Percy Grainger releases made, most just providing a smattering of his music, or, just enough to tease leaving the listener wanting more. And, some of these have been excellent as well. But I doubt there is going to be such an effort as this made for a long time to gather together this much Grainger into one package. Get it while you can.
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Robert Malone
Excellent and fun edition
Revisado en los Estados Unidos el 1 de agosto de 2021
Dr. Tim Parker
Excellent recordings of Grainger's work
Revisado en Canadá el 17 de marzo de 2021
Erik Brodersen
Very nice, but some of the takes and musicians are not nessecarily proffessionals.
Revisado en Alemania el 8 de diciembre de 2022Peter Schiefelbein
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Revisado en los Estados Unidos el 3 de marzo de 2021