Leif Ove Andsnes Teams Up with Matthias Goerne for Mahler/Shostakovich Recitals in Summer 2011

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After his final concert this season as Pianist-in-Residence of the Berlin Philharmonic, where he will perform Mozart and Dvořák chamber works on June 8, the celebrated Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes prepares for a tour of summer festivals in Norway, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy, plus song recitals in Germany, England, and Switzerland. Andsnes and German baritone Matthias Goerne will perform songs by Mahler and Shostakovich at the Risør Festival, Verbier Festival, and Salzburg Festival; Andsnes will also give solo recitals at the Ruhr Festival, Cheltenham Festival, and Verbier Festival, plus a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 with the Budapest Festival Orchestra at the Kissinger Sommer Festival.

Andsnes’s solo program this summer is the one he performed in the U.S. and Europe this spring, featuring two piano sonatas by Beethoven (No. 21 in C major, Op. 53, “Waldstein,” and No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111) and works by Brahms (Four Ballades, Op. 10) and Schoenberg (Sechs kleine Klavierstücke, Op. 19). Following a performance by Andsnes at New York’s Carnegie Hall, the New York Times gave a detailed and enthusiastic account of the performances:

Mr. Andsnes’s bracing “Waldstein” avoided any trace of superficial heroics… Mr. Andsnes played with uncanny steadiness and magisterial sweep…. His playing was impressively pristine, lucid and supple. But the mystery and audacious imagination in the music came through all the more. The slow movement had eerie serenity. How often do you think of the “Waldstein” as wondrously beautiful? That is what Mr. Andsnes achieved… He played Schoenberg’s Six Little Piano Pieces (Op. 19), a set of atonal miniatures, with a riveting combination of spaciousness and impetuosity.

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