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Andsnes returns to Grieg in Berlin
12/17/2002
After an eight-year hiatus from Grieg’s works, Norways best known and most accomplished pianist returns to the Norwegian composer’s Piano Concerto.
Together with former Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra conductor Mariss Jansons, Andsnes will record Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. December 19 – 20 presents the German capital’s audience with Norway’s foremost pianist, Leif Ove Andsnes, returning to the works of Edvard Grieg, undoubtedly Norway’s best known composer of all time. After an eight-year hiatus from Grieg’s works, Andsnes has chosen the grand Berlin Philharmonic as partner for this historical EMI Classics recording session. In addition to Grieg, Andsnes, Jansons and the BPO will perform Shumann’s Piano Concerto.
On the prospect of playing the Grieg Concerto after an eight-year hiatus from the work, Andsnes comments: "What happens with time - and after you've put something away for a while - is that all of the conscious things you've done become part of your unconscious performance. It becomes much more organic, and that's what I mean about a piece 'breathing.' It's as if the performance has its own life and I'm becoming more of a medium: I'm the one pushing it along."
Come January, Andsnes will bring Grieg’s Piano Concerto over the Atlantic for performances with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Lorin Maazel.
February will see Andsnes returning to Berlin for another recording session, again with the Berlin Philharmonic. Conducted by Pierre Boulez, Andsnes will record Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
February also includes US recitals at the Principia College in Illinois, Spivey Hall in Atlanta and Carnegie Hall in New York.
For a complete listing of Andsnes international performances, visit MIC’s event calendar.
Read about the event in German at the Norwegian Embassy's pages: www.norwegen.no
