[O]ne of the most interesting young virtuosi playing and a master-conductor in charge of the orchestra: that formula should ensure sufficient commercial success without any help from me... [I]n the Grieg...there are a number of intensely compelling moments that put this among the most attractive accounts of this much-recorded concerto—the cadenza in the first movement superbly controlled through the widest dynamic range, Kempe's beautiful tutti in the slow movement taken slowly and flexibly, Freire's clean touch at a modest tempo in the finale, the gorgeously seductive (ran quills section, and the superbly sprung 3/4 rhythm of the coda, taken slower but with far more lilt than is usual.
-- Gramophone [12/1968, reviewing the original LP release of the Grieg]
