This first recording to include the complete works for violin and piano by Edvard Grieg was recorded at Potton Hall in Suffolk in June 2001. Christopher Collins Lee plays a violin by Francesco Ruggiere, Cremona 1680 & Catherine Riley a Steinway D piano.

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The Riley/Collins Lee Duo have recently had a successful visit to Italy, with a very well received concert in Tuscany, at the Castello di San Giovanni D'Asso. This was held as part of the celebration of the annual truffles festival. (A highly prized gourmet delicacy for which this part of Italy is famous). Works performed included music by Tartini, Bourgeois, Wieniawski and Brahms.

It is hoped that this will be the first of many concerts in Tuscany, and the duo has been invited back for further concerts in the summer of 2003.

This CD contains the complete works for violin and piano by Edvard Grieg, and is the first complete CD to be recorded. The CD was recorded at Potton Hall in Suffolk in June 2001.

The reasoning behind the production of this CD is that they consider the music of Edvard Grieg has been neglected during the last 20 years, and this was unjustified. Edvard Grieg is an outstanding composer. He was in fact influenced by composers as far apart as Ravel and Brahms. It could justifiably be said that Grieg was one of the godfathers of post-Wagnerian impressionism. Grieg also had a long personal friendship with Frederick Delius.

Also remarkable is the influence Norwegian folk music had on his compositions, and his solo songs were imitations or adaptations of folk songs. In the violin sonatas we can clearly hear the influence of folk music, and especially that of the 'Hardanger fiddle.' This instrument exists to this day in areas such as Hardanger, Voss, Telemark and Hallingal, and modern exponents still perform with great skill. The playing of three and four note chords was helped by tuning the strings in a different way, with sympathetic strings vibrating the notes, and a flatter bridge. Grieg was extremely advanced in his new harmonic perspective, and this was quite new until Bartok produced folk music arrangements and improvisations much later in the 20th Century.

It was decided to make a compact disc (CD) of Edvard Grieg's violin and piano music in June 2000. However, it was not until June 2001 that Christopher Collins Lee and Catherine Riley arrived at Potton Hall in Suffolk, to record the CD.

By this time a whole year of planning and research had been undertaken, as well as budgeting, logistical and financial work. We spent a lot of time researching which composers we might include on the CD. The British Library and other research venues, including the Grieg Museum in Bergen, Norway, were used. It was then decided that our first choice, the music of Edvard Grieg, would be ideal, especially as he had been somewhat disregarded by concert promoters in recent years. The three violin sonatas are outstanding works, worthy of comparison against most of the works of the great composers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The choice of Potton Hall as a recording venue was made after much research and planning, and also advice from John Taylor, our recording engineer. Venues in and around London had been considered and finally rejected, for a variety of reasons - availability, costs, location, sound quality, sound pollution, and of equal importance, the flexibility and help and advice from the recording venue owner or manager. Here we were very lucky as at Potton Hall, Alan Foster was extremely accommodating and helpful.

Potton Hall turned out to be a wonderful recording venue, with a beautiful sound, and an ideal size for chamber music. Situated in the most stunningly beautiful open countryside, in Suffolk (not far from Aldeburgh), it was free of noise pollution, and we found inspiration just by stepping outside and appreciating the pure air and wonderful scenery.

We were able to use this wonderful facility to its full potential, and the three days of recording were extremely hard work. However, we felt that we were able to work with such concentration as it was such a beautiful place, and free from the distractions and frustrations of a typically noisy London venue, or the dubious acoustics of some cold and unwelcoming church.

Our team of four, consisting of the two performers (Catherine Riley - piano, and Christopher Collins Lee, violin), recording engineer (John Taylor), and producer (Peter Thomlinson), arrived to set up late in the afternoon of Thursday 7th June 2001.

During the editing process in 2002, we have just been able to squeeze the three sonatas and the short, previously unrecorded original piece, onto the CD, and the total running length is over 1 hour and 13 minutes. Good value by any measure. The sound quality is superb, as are the performances from these two very unusual, talented, and highly accomplished artists.

"Christopher Collins Lee has the most beautiful sound of his generation" - NATHAN MILSTEIN

Christopher Collins Lee, violinist, became a protégé of Zino Francescatti at the age of sixteen, touring with him throughout Europe. He holds B.F.A. and M.M. degrees from the Juilliard School of Music, a Doctorate from SUNY Stony Brook, and five Honorary Doctorates from foreign institutions. He holds the State Department title of Official Musical Ambassador of the United States, and has toured the world many times under their auspices. Dr. Lee has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Grant, Fulbright, National Arts Club, Artists International, Carl Flesch International Violin Competition, J.S. Bach Competition, Tibor Varga International Violin Competition, the Samuel Chozinoff Award, and the Fritz Kreisler Prize. Christopher Collins Lee has performed as soloist with Leopold Stokowski and Arthur Fiedler among other conductors, and has recorded for the CBS, RCA, Desto, Everest, Arista, Delos and Quattro Corde labels. His latest CD, "French Masterpieces of the 20th Century" won The Lion D'Or Award. [See below]He has served as concertmaster of The American Symphony Orchestra, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, National Chorale and the Spanish Chamber Orchestra to name a few. The New York Times termed Dr. Lee "an impressive, stylish violinist with something special to say." Much in demand as a concerto soloist, violin recitalist, chamber music artist, and teacher, Christopher Collins Lee makes his home in a landmark Victorian mansion in Newark, NJ, and collects art, rare musical instruments, phonographs, and 78 rpm records. He plays a violin made in Cremona, Italy by Francesco Ruggieri in 1680, which once belonged to Leopold Mozart, father of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.