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Artist: Leif Ove Andsnes
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Leif Ove Andsnes:

Dvorak - Poetic Tone Pictures

‘I have to say I think this is the great forgotten cycle of the 19th century piano music. Maybe those are big words, but I do feel that,’ states Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes about his latest release on Sony Classical. On this album, he presents the most substantial piano collection by the great Romantic composer Antonín Dvorák - the unjustly neglected Poetic Tone Pictures.
According to the Norwegian pianist, these undiscovered gems show an entirely different side to the composer known for his symphonies and string quartets. ‘I love this music and no-one seems to play it,’ says Andsnes, who also championed the rarely played piano works of Jean Sibelius with the release «Sibelius» in 2017. 

The 13 postcards for piano that make up Dvorák’s Poetic Tone Pictures were written in the Spring of 1889, and signal a shift in style from a composer moving away from formal constructions towards a more free, inspired aesthetic. Among these charming pieces are evocations of magic and mystery (‘The Old Castle’), rustic dances (‘Furiant’ and ‘Peasant Ballad’), nostalgic mood pieces (‘Twilight Way’), and tragic reminiscences (‘At a Hero’s Grave’). The works range from the deeply profound to the playful, from lighthearted to furious - ‘I feel a very strong, wonderful narrative in them,’ says Leif Ove Andsnes, who firmly believes Dvorák conceived the pieces of this ‘exceptional’ set as a cycle to be played together.
 

Leif Ove Andsnes:

Mozart Momentum - 1786 w/Mahler Chamber Orchestra

Leif Ove Andsnes releases a second Mozart Momentum album with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, presenting a portrait of the master composer during the years in which his writing for the piano was at its most revolutionary, creative and game-changing.
 
“As masterly and finished and perfect as the music itself” – The Telegraph  (on Mozart Momentum 1785)
 
Leif Ove Andsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra follow their “triumphant” (Gramophone), “sparkling” (New York Times) and award-winning Mozart Momentum 1785 release with its partner album, focusing on the composer’s extraordinary creativity in the year 1786. “When you realize how quickly Mozart developed during the early years of the 1780s, it makes you ask: why did this happen? What was going on? It’s about the momentum of his creativity at this time,” says Leif Ove Andsnes.
 
In 1786 the white-hot inspiration of Mozart’s work on his opera The Marriage of Figaro spilled over into the composer’s piano concertos and chamber music. Suddenly, Mozart’s music was filled with a new spirit of conversation, deeper layers of meaning, and fuller explorations of instrumental and human character. In these works, Mozart was looking far beyond the confines of public taste and writing, apparently, to satisfy himself.

Leif Ove Andsnes:

Mozart Momentum - 1785 w/Mahler Chamber Orchestra

Mozart Momentum 1785 is the first of two releases on which pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra are exploring the remarkable years of 1785/86 in W.A. Mozart's life. It includes piano concertos Nos 20-22, the Piano Quartet in G minor, Masonic Funeral Music and Fantasia in C minor for solo piano.

In 1781, aged 25, Mozart made the bold move of going freelance, "Vienna is piano land!" he exclaimed in a letter to his father, Leopold, in an attempt to argue his case for resigning from the employment of the Archbishop of Salzburg. With both public and private concerts taking place on a daily basis, Vienna was the place to be for an ambitious young composer and performer, and Mozart was quick to realize the opportunities on offer. Within a couple of years he had established himself as one of the most famous musicians in Vienna but by1785 he had competition on his doorstep.

Mozart wrote a series of masterpieces and revolutionized the nature of the piano concerto. The five piano concertos, no.20-24, are game-changers in the history of the form. Mozart began to re-examine the roles of the soloist and orchestra and created a dialogue between the two entities in a way that had not been heard before. "It changes completely with Mozart's Piano Concerto No 20 [in D minor K466]," says Andsnes.

Leif Ove Andsnes:

Chopin - Ballades & Nocturnes

This fall, Sony Classical looks forward to releasing Chopin: Ballades & Nocturnes for solo piano by Leif Ove Andsnes, "a pianist of magisterial elegance, power and insight" (New York Times). Interspersing the Romantic master composer's four Ballades – works immense in the range and power of their expression – with three of his nocturnes, the new album represents the Norwegian pianist's first recording of Chopin's music in more than a decade.

Leif Ove Andsnes:

Sibelius

Leif Ove Andsnes will follow his string of award-winning Beethoven concerto recordings for Sony Classical with an album of solo piano works by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Sibelius wrote over 150 works for piano, but the composer's works for the instrument have long languished in the shadow of his orchestral music. His piano pieces were often seen as lacking in the rich, sonorous textures that the composer brought to his full orchestral works and were therefore largely disregarded. Andsnes has scoured the composer's entire piano output, carefully selecting the pieces he believes deserve recognition and with which he feels a strong personal connection, uncovering ‘intriguing works with the wonderful Sibelius qualities we know'.

Leif Ove Andsnes:

The Beethoven Journey - Piano Con5/Choral Fantasy

"Effortless brilliance and scrupulous integrity, affecting naturalness and self-effacing beauty"  - The New York Times

Four years in the making, the celebrated Beethoven Journey has now reached its crowning season. An intense collaborative project between Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the heart of the journeyhas been the recording of all five of Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerti and his Choral Fantasy, with the final albumscheduled for release by Sony Classical on September 16. Over the four years Leif Ove Andsnes has also made Beethoven's concerti the focus of his attention on stage with over 150 performances in 55 cities and 22 countries. With the start of the 2014 / 15 season Andsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra embark on a year of high-profile residencies that will see them perform the complete cycle of concerti in Hamburg, Bonn, Lucerne, Vienna, Paris, New York, Shanghai, Tokyo and London (full performance listings below).  A third and integral part of the Beethoven Journey is an ambitious education project series entitled Feel the Music that gives children with hearing impairment the chance to experience music both in personal workshops and on the concert platform together with Andsnes and the orchestra.

Leif Ove Andsnes:

The Beethoven Journey - Piano Concertos 2 & 4

March 11th brings the release of The Beethoven Journey: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 4, the second recording from 2013 Gramophone Hall of Fame inductee Leif Ove Andsnes in his long-term focus on the master composer's five piano concertos. Like the first title in the series, which won both iTunes' Best Instrumental Album of 2012 and Belgium's Prix Caecilia, the new album was recorded for Sony Classical with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO) and directed from the keyboard by the Norwegian pianist himself.The new release heralds Andsnes's return to the States this March, with an all-Beethoven solo recital program that takes him to the main stages of four of the nation's leading venues – New York's Carnegie Hall (March 19), Chicago's Symphony Center (March 16), Atlanta's Spivey Hall (March 14), and Princeton's McCarter Theater (March 17) – crowning his epic 19-city, eleven-country tour across America, Europe, and Japan.

Leif Ove Andsnes:

The Beethoven Journey - Piano Concertos 1 & 3

Over the next four seasons, the celebrated Norwegian pianist and new exclusive Sony Classical artist Leif Ove Andsnes will devote the majority of his performing and recording activities to the music of Ludwig van Beethoven. At the heart of The Beethoven Journey is the pianist's commitment to perform and record Beethoven's five piano concertos with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO). The Beethoven Journey began this year with a concert series at the Prague Spring Festival, with Andsnes performing and directing the orchestra from the keyboard. Now, Andsnes releases his first Beethoven recording ever.  Available on Tuesday, September 11, 2012, Piano Concertos No. 1 & 3 is the first recording in his Beethoven Journey series.