Leif Ove Andsnes: 2010-11 season
Described by the Wall Street Journal as “one of the most gifted musicians of his generation,” Leif Ove Andsnes begins his 2010-11 season on September 21 with the first of seven concerts as Pianist-in-Residence of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The BPO residency will feature the celebrated Norwegian pianist in five diverse programs including chamber concerts, a solo recital, and Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 conducted by Bernard Haitink. This season, Andsnes will also serve as Artist-in-Residence with his hometown orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic, where he will perform three programs including one featuring a work that was written for him: Ketil Hvoslef’s 1993 Piano Concerto. Andsnes will also be soloist on a European tour with the London Philharmonic and Vladimir Jurowski, giving performances of Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto in London, Spain, and Germany (Oct 30 – Nov 7). Among the many other highlights of his new season, Andsnes brings his tenure as co-artistic director of the renowned Risor Chamber Music Festival to a festive conclusion with a fall tour that includes concerts in Oslo, Brussels, London, and New York’s Carnegie Hall.
Andsnes’s concerto performances this season include Mozart’s Concerto No. 24 with the Dresden Staatskapelle and Herbert Blomstedt, and a February tour with the Concertgebouw Orchestra under Mariss Jansons, playing the same Mozart concerto and Brahms’s second in Amsterdam, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Luxembourg, and Paris. He also performs Brahms’s Concerto No. 2 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti in his first season there as Music Director, and with the Orchestre de Paris under Paavo Järvi in Paris and Vienna. Andsnes and Muti collaborated on Brahms’s second with the New York Philharmonic two seasons ago, in what the New York Times described as a “vibrant, brilliant performance.”
In April, Andsnes begins an extensive recital tour with performances in Boston, Chicago, and New York’s Carnegie Hall, before returning to Europe for dates in Rome, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Madrid, Vienna, Hamburg, Geneva, and other cities. Recital programs will feature piano sonatas by Beethoven, including the late Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111, as well as music by Brahms and Schoenberg.
In the fall, EMI Classics will release a recording featuring Andsnes performing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concertos Nos. 3 and 4 with Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra (U.S. release date is October 26). The release completes Andsnes’s cycle of the great Russian composer’s four concertos. The previous installment, featuring Concertos Nos. 1 and 2, won a coveted Gramophone Award in 2006 and was nominated for a Grammy Award. Andsnes has also recorded an album of Schumann’s complete Piano Trios with violinist Christian Tetzlaff and his sister, cellist Tanja Tetzlaff, which is scheduled for release by EMI Classics in early 2011.
Previous season highlights
Andsnes devoted much of his 2009-10 season to “Pictures Reframed,” a major multi-media project with South African artist Robin Rhode. The culmination of years of planning, the project was toured extensively throughout Europe and North America, to great acclaim. At the heart of this collaborative work was Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, which Andsnes played while Rhode’s illustrations and films, inspired by the piece, were projected onto a specially designed stage set. Schumann’s Kinderszenen and a new work by Thomas Larcher, written for the project in collaboration with Rhode, were also integral to the performance. Norway’s StatOilHydro was the event’s commissioning sponsor, and Norwegian TV documented the project on film. EMI Classics released it on both CD and DVD, including a deluxe exhibition catalogue-style hardback book with a wide selection of images from the creation and final performance version of the project. The latter won a 2010 ECHO-Klassik Prize.
In addition to Pictures Reframed, EMI Classics released Andsnes’s Shadows of Silence, featuring a work of the same name by the Danish composer Bent Sorensen and French composer Marc-André Dalbavie’s Piano Concerto. Other repertoire on the disc includes solo works by Kurtág, and Lutoslawski’s Piano Concerto recorded live with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst.
Other highlights for last season included performances of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Stéphane Denève; the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Gustavo Dudamel; and both the Academy of Santa Cecilia and the London Symphony Orchestra with Antonio Pappano. Andsnes also gave the world-premiere performance with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra of a new work written by Bent Sorensen; performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23, K.488, with the New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert; and also with the Vienna Philharmonic and Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the famous Salzburg Mozartwoche. He gave recital performances in Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, London and Warsaw, and toured Japan and Korea with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, leading concerts of Mozart piano concertos from the piano. He also recorded music by Janacek and Beethoven live at Apple’s store on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and the recording is available exclusively as a digital release on iTunes.
In June 2010, Leif Ove Andsnes achieved one of his proudest accomplishments to date: he became a father for the first time.
Leif Ove Andsnes: 2010-11 season
Sep 21
Berlin, Germany
Berlin Philharmonic Pianist-in-Residence
Chamber Concert
Sep 25
Trondheim, Norway
Trondheim Chamber Music Festival
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24
Oct 14 & 15
Bergen, Norway
Bergen Philharmonic / Pietari Inkinin
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2
October 30
London, UK
London Philharmonic Orchestra / Vladimir Jurowski
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2
Nov 1-7
European tour with London Philharmonic / Vladimir Jurowski
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2
Madrid, Spain (Nov 1)
Pamplona, Spain (Nov 2)
Stuttgart, Germany (Nov 4)
Friedrichshafen, Germany (Nov 5)
Düsseldorf, Germany (Nov 6)
Hannover, Germany (Nov 7)
Nov 20-28
Risor Chamber Music Festival tour (Europe)
Oslo, Norway (Nov 20)
Brussels, Belgium (Nov 22-24)
London, UK (Nov 26-28)
Dec 1-4
Risor Chamber Music Festival tour (New York, NY)
Carnegie’s Zankel Hall (Dec 1) includes Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with Marc-André Hamelin
Carnegie’s Zankel Hall (Dec 2) includes music by Debussy, Wallin, Sorensen, and Mozart
Carnegie Hall (Dec 3) with Risor Festival Strings and soprano Measha Brueggergosman
Carnegie’s Zankel Hall (Dec 4) with soprano Measha Brueggergosman
Dec 12
Berlin Philharmonic Pianist-in-Residence
Chamber concert
Dec 19-21
Dresden, Germany
Dresden Staatskapelle / Herbert Blomstedt
Mozart: Mozart Piano Concerto No. 24
Jan 20 & 21, 2011
Bergen, Norway
Bergen Philharmonic / Edward Gardner
Hvoslef: Piano Concerto
Feb 2, 4
Amsterdam, Holland
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Mariss Jansons
Feb 5
Amsterdam, Holland
Chamber concert
Muziekgebouw
Feb 6-14
European tour with Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Mariss Jansons
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24 or Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2
Hamburg, Germany (Feb 6)
Copenhagen, Denmark (Feb 7)
Oslo, Norway (Feb 8 & 9)
Stockholm, Sweden (Feb 11)
Luxembourg (Feb 13)
Paris, France (Feb 14)
Feb 17-19
Chicago, IL
Chicago Symphony / Riccardo Muti
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2
March 16-18
Berlin, Germany
Berlin Philharmonic Pianist-in-Residence
Berlin Philharmonic / Bernard Haitink
March 28 (t.b.c.)
Copenhagen, Denmark
Recital
March 30
Bergen, Norway
Recital
April 1-7
U.S. recital tour
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 21 in C, Op. 53 “Waldstein”; Brahms: Four Ballades, Op. 10; Schoenberg: Sechs kleine Klavierstücke, Op. 19; Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111
Jordan Hall, Boston, MA (April 1)
Symphony Hall, Chicago, IL (April 3)
Krannert Center, Champaign-Urbana, IL (April 5)
Carnegie Hall, New York, NY (April 7)
April 13 – May 16
European recital tour
Rome, Italy (April 13)
Perugia, Italy (April 14)
St. Petersburg, Russia (April 16)
Berlin, Germany (Berlin Philharmonic Pianist-in-Residence) (April 18)
Madrid, Spain (April 26)
Vienna, Austria (April 28)
Hamburg, Germany (May 8)
Geneva, Switzerland (May 11)
Dijon, France (May 13)
Toulouse, France (May 16)
May 25
Paris, France
Orchestre de Paris / Paavo Järvi
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2
May 28
Vienna, Austria
Orchestre de Paris / Paavo Järvi
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2
June 8
Berlin, Germany
Berlin Philharmonic Pianist-in-Residence
Chamber concert
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© 21C Media Group, September 2010