ROBERT RIEFLING
Norwegian pianist (1911 - 1988)

Robert Riefling, one of the leading Scandinavian pianists of the mid-century, had been a student of Wilhelm Kempff and Edwin Fischer in pre-WWII Germany.  During the war he was imprisoned in Norway by the occupying Nazis and it was during this time that he studied The Well Tempered Clavier by Bach for which he became so well known and highly regarded and which can be heard, in large part, if you follow the link.

Robert Riefling concertized extensively after the war performing and recording over 60 albums including the complete sonatas of Beethoven, and la number of sonatas by Haydn and Mozart.  He was a professor of piano at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and the Norwegian Academy of Music, and was highly decorated by the governments of Norway, Denmark, and Germany.

In addition the Bach, Beethoven and other well known pieces performed by Robert Riefling, we are introduced to the work of two Norwegian composers: Fartein Valen (Riefling recorded the compete works for piano of this composer, whose atonal polyphony is a wonderful marriage of Bach and Schoenberg, and the second piano concerto by Klaus Egge, a composer to whose music I am not unfamiliar and have always quite liked.

Beethoven  Piano Concerto in G major, Op 58
Karsten Andersen conducting the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra

i Allegro moderato