Leif Ove Andsnes
Biography
With his commanding technique and searching interpretations, the pianist, Leif Ove Andsnes, has won worldwide acclaim, giving recitals and playing concertos in the world’s leading concert halls and with its foremost orchestras. Also an avid chamber musician, he is the founding director of the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival in Norway. In the current season Andsnes performs in concert with the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonia, Vienna Philharmonic and NHK Symphony Orchestra amongst others. He gives solo recitals across South America and Japan, joins Matthias Goerne for dedicated Schubert lieder projects and Marc-André Hamelin for a programme of Mozart, Debussy and Stravinsky for piano four-hands. Following the enormous success of his recent 3 volume Beethoven Journey on Sony Classical, Leif Ove Andsnes recently returned to the studio to make two new recordings, both due for release in 2017-18: a Stravinsky four-hands album, recorded with Marc-André Hamelin for Hyperion, and a solo Sibelius collection for Sony Classical. His previous discography comprises more than 30 discs for EMI Classics – solo, chamber, and concerto releases, many of them bestsellers – spanning repertoire from the time of Bach to the present day. Andsnes has received Norway’s distinguished honor, Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav. In 2007, he received the prestigious Peer Gynt Prize, awarded by members of parliament to honor prominent Norwegians and, in Spring 2016, he received an honorary doctorate from New York’s Juilliard School. He is also the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist Award and the Gilmore Artist Award. He was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame in 2013 and, saluting his many achievements, Vanity Fair named Andsnes one of its ‘Best of the Best’ in 2005. Leif Ove Andsnes was born in Karmøy, Norway in 1970, and studied at the Bergen Music Conservatory under the renowned Czech professor Jirí Hlinka. He has also received invaluable advice from the Belgian piano teacher Jacques de Tiège who, like Hlinka, has greatly influenced his style and philosophy of playing. He is currently an Artistic Adviser for the Prof. Jiri Hlinka Piano Academy in Bergen where he gives an annual masterclass to participating students. Andsnes lives in Bergen and in June 2010 achieved one of his proudest accomplishments to date, becoming a father for the first time. His family expanded in May 2013 with the welcome arrival of twins.
Current album
Mozart Momentum - 1785
Artists Leif Ove AndsnesRelease Date: 05/28/2021
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 masterpiecesand 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.
