Soprano Claire Booth and pianist Christopher Glynn trace an arc through Edvard Grieg’s Lyric Music, interspersing vocal miniatures with solo piano pieces that range in mood from bright, youthful innocence to shades of autumnal twilight.

Following their acclaimed collaboration in Percy Grainger’s Folk Music (AV2372), soprano Claire Booth and pianist Christopher Glynn turn to the Lyric Music of Edvard Grieg, an apt sequel as the elder composer befriended Grainger – who idolised the Norwegian’s folkloric idiom – immediately on their first encounter in London in 1906. Interspersing intimate vocal miniatures with lyrical solo piano pieces, Claire and Christopher mirror many of the programmes that Grieg and his wife Nina performed on their many recital tours together. Each of the works on Lyric Music tells a story, as does the album as a whole, ranging in mood from bright, youthful innocence to shades of autumnal twilight. Sung in the original Norwegian, Claire’s and Christopher’s performances are as evocative as Norway’s varied landscape.