Robert Riefling’s career lasted for more than 60 years, and his reputation as one of Scandinavia’s most brilliant pianists has never been in doubt. He made more than 60 recordings, amongst which are all of Beethoven’s sonatas, a series which was honoured with a Grand Prix du Disque.

This 2CD set, released as Volume 4 in the series of Historic recordings from Simax entitled “Great Norwegian Performers 1945 – 2000”, contains five pieces by Beethoven from three different concert recordings made between 1979 and 1986, and marks the highlight of Riefling’s brilliant concert performances. Although the pianist was already approaching his 70s, he was still playing with the same openness and adventurous spirit of his youth.

The first disc features performances of Beethoven’s last three Piano Sonatas, Opus 109 – 111 from 1979 at the Håkonshallen in Bergen, whilst the second disc is a recording of performances made at the Oslo Konserthus of Piano Concerto No. 4 in 1986 and No. 5 “Emperor” in 1981. The orchestra is the Oslo Philharmonic and the conductors are Karsten Andersen in the fourth and Gabriel Chmura in the fifth.