This spring, Leif Ove Andsnes returns to Carnegie Hall on transatlantic recital tour; undertakes Wigmore Hall residency; & performs with NDR & Berlin Philharmonic
(December 2024) — When celebrated Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes last appeared at New York’s Carnegie Hall almost two years ago, his recital was a New York TimesCritic’s Pick that showcased his “committed playing and interpretive wisdom.” Now he returns to the venue’s main stage with a new solo program of Chopin preludes and sonatas by Norwegians Grieg and the little-known Geirr Tveitt (March 25), crowning a U.S. tour with dates in Philadelphia (March 21), Baltimore (March 23), Cleveland(March 27), St. Paul, MN (March 28), Aliso Viejo, CA (March 30), and Berkeley, CA(April 1). This transatlantic recital tour kicks off in Europe, where Andsnes appears at London’s Wigmore Hall (Jan 12) as the first engagement of a three-part residency at the venue, to which he returns for chamber collaborations with pianist Bertrand Chamayou(May 21) and musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (March 12). Other spring highlights include concerts with both the Berlin Philharmonic (April 13 & 19) and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra (May 8, 9, & 11) at major German festivals.
Transatlantic recital tour with new solo program of Chopin, Grieg, and Tveitt
Andsnes regularly champions lesser-known works, bringing rare gems to audiences worldwide. The centerpiece of his new solo program is the only surviving piano sonata by his compatriot Geirr Tveitt (1908-81), a prolific composer and important collector and arranger of Norwegian folk tunes. Little of Tveitt’s music was published and, in 1970, when his studio burned to the ground, some 80 per cent of his output was lost. Surviving compositions include the Piano Sonata No. 29, “Sonata Etere,” one of the composer’s few large-scale works. Andsnes first championed Tveitt’s music on his 2007 recording Long Long Winter Night. He explains:
“Tveitt studied both as pianist and composer in Leipzig, Paris, and Vienna, and one can hear these traces in his piano writing, maybe most clearly the influence of French piano music. The sonata is very colorful and he uses the instrument in the most imaginative ways. It’s an epic piece, but the simplicity of folk music runs through it. Tveitt wanted to get to the roots of the folk music, and he was quite obsessed with using different modal scales, which one often finds in folk music from different countries.”
Throughout the upcoming transatlantic recital tour, Tveitt’s sonata will be heard alongside Grieg’s sole piano sonata. Andsnes’s interpretations of the great Norwegian’s music have long been widely celebrated, winning the pianist two of his seven Gramophone Awards. As Gramophone puts it: “Praise could hardly be too high for a pianist who so enviably captures [Grieg’s] poignant nature.”
Andsnes rounds out his program with the poetic miniatures of Chopin’s 24 Preludes. The tour marks his first performances of the complete set in recital; he says:
“The Preludes are so full of miracles. Chopin’s biographer Alan Walker portrays him as a composer whose creative process was deeply intertwined with improvisation, the tactile experience of the piano, and a profound appreciation for vocal music. Each of the 24 pieces has its own fascinating character, and as a pianist it feels both essential and very gratifying to finally study and play this ingenious set as a complete cycle.”
A longtime devotee of the composer’s music, Andsnes’s recording Chopin: Ballades & Nocturnes was named one of the “Best Classical Albums of 2018” (WQXR) and nominated for an International Classical Music Award. In live performance, his performance of Chopin drew a five-star review from the Financial Times, which concluded:
“Andsnes brings to Chopin a classical sensibility allied to the most ethereal of touches, adorning Chopin’s bel canto melody with decoration of rare delicacy. His First Ballade combined a glowing beauty and a fearless but never reckless technique.”
Wigmore Hall residency
Following his solo recital at the venue, Andsnes returns twice more to London’s Wigmore Hall next spring. With musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO), he performs chamber music by Poulenc, Vierne, Stravinsky, and Villa-Lobos there (March 12) as the final stop of a European tour. This also takes in Luxembourg (March 10), Brussels(March 11), and Germany’s Musikwoche Hitzacker festival, where their three-night residency features a performance of Haydn’s D-major Piano Concerto, led by Andsnes from the keyboard (March 7–9). The MCO previously partnered him on two major, multi-season projects: “Mozart Momentum 1785/86” and “The Beethoven Journey.” The resulting recordings won multiple honors, including BBC Music’s coveted “Recording of the Year” and Gramophone’s “Special Achievement” award. As The Guardian observes: “You’d be hard put to find a pianist and orchestra better matched.”
Andsnes completes his Wigmore residency with a four-hands recital of music by Schubertand György Kurtág, for which he will be joined by Bertrand Chamayou (May 21). After one of the two pianists’ previous collaborations, the Edinburgh Music Review marveled:
“There was unanimity of musical voice and phrasing, the two players playing as one. This doesn’t just happen. It needs work and commitment and an element of chemistry. Clearly this artistic rapport is there.”
Concerts with Berlin Philharmonic, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, & others
In concert, Andsnes returns to two of Germany’s foremost orchestras over the months ahead. In his second engagement of the season with the Berlin Philharmonic, he performs Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto at Baden-Baden’s Easter Festival under the baton of Klaus Mäkelä (April 13 & 19). His recording of the work with the London Symphony Orchestra prompted The Guardian to declare: “The passion burns from within in this incendiary account,” and after a recent collaboration with Mäkelä at the Oslo Philharmonic, Austria’s Der Standard described their performance as “compelling and stunningly impressive.”
Later next spring, Andsnes joins Alan Gilbert and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra at the 2025 Hamburg International Festival for accounts of Franck’s Variations symphoniques and Debussy’s Fantaisie for piano and orchestra (May 8, 9, & 11). The Debussy is a seldom-programmed work that Andsnes previously performed “with easy virtuosity and panache” (The New York Times) during his tenure as Artist-in-Residence of the New York Philharmonic.
As one of today’s leading exponents of Grieg’s Piano Concerto, Andsnes reprises the work with both the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic under Ryan Bancroft (Jan 23 & 25) and the Czech Philharmonic under Jakub Hrůša (April 24–26). To complete his concert lineup, he pairs Haydn’s D-major Piano Concerto with Franck’s Variations symphoniquesin concerts with the Barcelona Symphony and Gemma New (May 30 & 31).
Recent successes
Andsnes’s spring engagements follow a string of fall successes. His reading of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra “was a simply phenomenal performance and rightly rewarded by a standing ovation” (Seen and Heard International). Delivering “unforgettable Beethoven,” his concerts with Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra “proved something to be treasured.” As the Washington Classical Review continued:
“From the signature opening keyboard flourishes, Andsnes etched every detail of this ‘Emperor’ concerto with crystalline clarity. … Voicings revealed themselves with ease, from luscious trills to undulating chromatic runs. … After several ovations, Andsnes provided an afterglow with a cleverly selected encore: Chopin’s Prelude in A-flat major (Op. 28, no. 17). The Steinway came alive under his fingertips.”
Similarly, the September release Who We Are, the first studio recording to capture his collaboration with Norwegian jazz saxophonist Marius Neset, was hailed as “an imaginatively conceived album featuring performances of dazzling quality that do not so much combine classical with jazz as forge unique and compelling styles of their own” (Gramophone).
Leif Ove Andsnes: upcoming engagements
Dec 19–21
Berlin, Germany
Berlin Philharmonic / Herbert Blomstedt
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 20
Jan 5–Feb 13: transatlantic solo recital tour – European dates
Jan 5: Stavanger, Norway
Jan 6: Oslo, Norway (Norwegian Opera)
Jan 8: Bodø, Norway
Jan 10: Monte Carlo, Monaco
Jan 12: London, England (Wigmore Hall; residency)
Jan 14: Lucerne, Switzerland (“Grand Recital: Andsnes”)
Jan 26: Stockholm, Sweden
Jan 31: Copenhagen, Denmark
Feb 7: Turin, Italy
Feb 8: Florence, Italy
Feb 13: Vienna (Musikverein)
GRIEG: Piano Sonata
G. TVEITT: Piano Sonata No. 29, “Sonata Etere” [all dates except Feb 13]
JANÁČEK: Selections from On an Overgrown Path [Feb 13 only]
CHOPIN: 24 Preludes
Jan 23 & 25
Stockholm, Sweden
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra / Ryan Bancroft
GRIEG: Piano Concerto
March 7–9
Hitzacker, Germany
Musikwoche Hitzacker
With musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra
March 7
STRAVINSKY: Septet
POULENC: Sextet for Piano and Winds
VILLA-LOBOS: Quintette en forme de Choros
March 8
Talk: “A Special Relationship”
March 9
HAYDN: Piano Concerto in D (directing from keyboard)
LISZT: Romance oubliée for viola and piano (with Antoine Tamestit, viola)
VIERNE: Piano Quintet
March 10–12: European tour with musicians of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra:
March 10: Luxembourg
March 11 Brussels, Belgium
March 12: London, England (Wigmore Hall; residency)
STRAVINSKY: Septet
VILLA-LOBOS: Quintette en forme de Choros
POULENC: Sextet for Piano and Winds
VIERNE: Piano Quintet
March 21–April 1: transatlantic solo recital tour – U.S. dates
March 21: Philadelphia, PA (Philadelphia Chamber Music Society; Perelman Theater)
March 23: Baltimore, MD (Shriver Hall)
March 25: New York, NY (Carnegie Hall)
March 27: Cleveland, OH (Severance Hall)
March 28: St. Paul, MN (Ordway Center)
March 30: Aliso Viejo, CA (Soka Performing Arts Center)
April 1: Berkeley, CA (Cal Performances)
GRIEG: Piano Sonata
G. TVEITT: Piano Sonata No. 29, “Sonata Etere”
CHOPIN: 24 Preludes
April 13 & 19
Baden-Baden, Germany
Easter Festival
Berlin Philharmonic / Klaus Mäkelä
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3
April 24–26
Prague, Czech Republic
Czech Philharmonic / Jakub Hrůša
GRIEG: Piano Concerto
May 8, 9, & 11
Hamburg, Germany
Hamburg International Music Festival
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Alan Gilbert
DEBUSSY: Fantaisie for piano and orchestra
FRANCK: Variations symphoniques
May 20
Milan, Italy
Piano four-hands recital with Bertrand Chamayou, piano
SCHUBERT: Rondo in A (four-hands)
SCHUBERT: Allegro in A minor, “Lebensstürme” (four-hands)
SCHUBERT: Fugue in E minor (solo)
SCHUBERT: Impromptu D.935 No. 1 (solo)
SCHUBERT: Fantasie in F minor (four-hands)
May 21
London, England
Wigmore Hall (residency)
Piano four-hands recital with Bertrand Chamayou, piano
SCHUBERT: Rondo in A (four-hands)
SCHUBERT: Allegro in A minor, “Lebensstürme” (four-hands)
SCHUBERT: Fugue in E minor (solo)
SCHUBERT: Fantasie in F minor (four-hands)
KURTÁG: Selections from Játékok (solo and four-hands)
May 30 & 31
Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona Symphony Orchestra / Gemma New
HAYDN: Piano Concerto in D
FRANCK: Variations symphoniques
June 11 & 13
Solo recitals in Germany
June 11: Mühlheim, Germany (Ruhr Piano Festival)
June 13: Frankfurt, Germany
Solo recital:
GRIEG: Piano Sonata
G. TVEITT: Piano Sonata No. 29, “Sonata Etere”
CHOPIN: 24 Preludes