Sibelius Leif Ove Andsnes

• Jean Sibelius (1865-1957):
• 1 6 Impromptus, Op. 5: Impromptu V 03:50
• 2 6 Impromptus, Op. 5: Impromptu VI 06:09
• 3 Kyllikki - Three Lyrical Pieces for Piano, Op. 41: I. Largamente 03:11
• 4 Kyllikki - Three Lyrical Pieces for Piano, Op. 41: II. Andantino 04:22
• 5 Kyllikki - Three Lyrical Pieces for Piano, Op. 41: III. Commodo 02:50
• 6 10 Pieces for Piano, Op. 24: Romance, No. 9 03:52
• 7 10 Pieces for Piano, Op. 24: Barcarola, No. 10 04:24
• 8 10 Pieces for Piano, Op. 58: Der Hirt, No. 4 02:22
• 9 Valse triste, Op. 44, No. 1 (Arranged for Piano) 05:05
• 10 Sonatina No. 1, Op. 67: I. Allegro 02:55
• 11 Sonatina No. 1, Op. 67: II. Largo 02:12
• 12 Sonatina No. 1, Op. 67: III. Allegro moderato 01:39
• 13 Five Pieces for Piano, Op. 75: Björken, No. 4 01:37
• 14 Five Pieces for Piano, Op. 75: Granen, No. 5 02:48
• 15 2 Rondinos for Piano, Op. 68: Rondino II 01:46
• 16 13 Pieces for Piano, Op. 76: Elegiaco, No. 10 01:32
• 17 6 Bagatelles for Piano, Op. 97: Impromptu, No. 5 01:37
• 18 6 Bagatelles for Piano, Op. 97: Humoristischer Marsch, No. 4 01:08
• 19 6 Bagatelles for Piano, Op. 97: Lied, No. 2 02:51
• 20 Fünf Skizzen, Op. 114: I. Landschaft 01:48
• 21 Fünf Skizzen, Op. 114: II. Winterbild 01:55
• 22 Fünf Skizzen, Op. 114: III. Der Teich 01:40
• 23 Fünf Skizzen, Op. 114: IV. Lied im Walde 01:49
• 24 Fünf Skizzen, Op. 114: V. Im Frühling 02:05
• Total Runtime 01:05:27

Info for Sibelius

Leif Ove Andsnes plays the symphonic master’s hidden piano gems. "Everyone was astonished that there can be a major composer out there with such beautiful, accessible music that people don’t know. These are intriguing works with the wonderful Sibelius qualities we know. I really, really believe in this music and I want people to hear it.“ (Leif Ove Andsnes)

Sibelius’s solo piano music – too long in the shadow of his symphonic writings – is the focus of Andsnes’s new Sony Classical recording, his first since the award-winning Beethoven Journey series. Recorded in Berlin last December, and due for release on September 1, the album gathers together some of the Finnish composer’s lesser-known gems that Andsnes, who scoured the composer’s entire piano output to select them, calls “intriguing works with the wonderful Sibelius qualities we know.”

They include the composer’s own piano arrangement of his famous Valse triste, and excerpts from the popular Ten Pieces, Op. 24 and the piano score that is often considered his finest, Kyllikki (Three Lyric Pieces), Op. 41. Also featured are “The Birch” and “The Spruce” from his five “tree” pieces, and the final pair of his Six Impromptus, Op. 5, early pieces from the 1890s that reveal the influence of Finnish folklore. Andsnes explains: “There is an impressionistic, watery feel while Sibelius can almost feel like a Nordic Satie. It’s quite clear he experimented with very different approaches.” The album also includes the first of the Three Sonatinas, Op. 67, composed during the early 1910s, when Sibelius famously compared his music – by contrast with the “cocktails” of other composers – to “pure cold water.” Andsnes says:

“The first Sonatina is a real masterpiece – so simple and so sophisticated at the same time. It inhabits a very private world and is almost not a piece for the public, but something to play for a friend or even alone.”

Leif Ove Andsnes, piano

Leif Ove Andsnes
The New York Times calls Leif Ove Andsnes “a pianist of magisterial elegance, power, and insight,” and the Wall Street Journal names him “one of the most gifted musicians of his generation.” With his commanding technique and searching interpretations, the celebrated Norwegian pianist has won acclaim worldwide, playing concertos and recitals in the world’s leading concert halls and with its foremost orchestras, while building an esteemed and extensive discography. An avid chamber musician, he is the founding director of the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival, was co-artistic director of the Risør Festival of Chamber Music for nearly two decades, and served as music director of California’s Ojai Music Festival in 2012. He was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame in July 2013, and received honorary doctorates from New York’s Juilliard School and Norway’s University of Bergen in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

Andsnes is currently partnering with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO) on “Mozart Momentum 1785/86.” A major multi-season project exploring one of the most creative and seminal periods of the composer’s career, this sees the pianist lead the ensemble from the keyboard in accounts of Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 20–24 at key European venues, as well as recording them for Sony Classical. When it was released in May 2021, the project’s first album, MM/1785, was named “Record of the Week” by BBC Radio 3 and “Recording of the Month” by Gramophone magazine, which pronounced it “a remarkable achievement by all concerned.” “Mozart Momentum 1785/86” marks Andsnes’s second artistic partnership with the MCO, following the success of “The Beethoven Journey.” An epic four-season focus on the composer’s music for piano and orchestra, this took the pianist to 108 cities in 27 countries for more than 230 live performances, and is perhaps his most ambitious achievement to date. He led the MCO from the keyboard in complete Beethoven concerto cycles at high-profile residencies in Bonn, Hamburg, Lucerne, Vienna, Paris, New York, Shanghai, Tokyo, Bodø and London, besides collaborating with such leading international ensembles as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, London Philharmonic and Munich Philharmonic. The project was chronicled in the documentary Concerto – A Beethoven Journey (2016), and Andsnes’s partnership with the MCO was captured on the hit Sony Classical three-volume series The Beethoven Journey. The first volume was named iTunes’ Best Instrumental Album of 2012 and awarded Belgium’s Prix Caecilia, the second recognized with BBC Music’s coveted “2015 Recording of the Year Award,” and the complete series chosen as one of the “Best of 2014” by the New York Times.

Andsnes now records exclusively 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. He has been nominated for eleven Grammys and awarded many international prizes, including six Gramophone Awards. His recordings of the music of his compatriot Edvard Grieg have been especially celebrated: the New York Times named Andsnes’s 2004 recording of Grieg’s Piano Concerto with Mariss Jansons and the Berlin Philharmonic a “Best CD of the Year,” the Penguin Guide awarded it a coveted “Rosette,” and both that album and his disc of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces won Gramophone Awards. His recording of Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 9 and 18 was another New York Times “Best of the Year” and Penguin Guide “Rosette” honoree. He won yet another Gramophone Award for Rachmaninov’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 with Antonio Pappano and the Berlin Philharmonic. A series of recordings of Schubert’s late sonatas, paired with lieder sung by Ian Bostridge, inspired lavish praise, as did the pianist’s world-premiere recordings of Marc-André Dalbavie’s Piano Concerto and Bent Sørensen’s The Shadows of Silence, both of which were written for him. As well as Chopin: Ballades & Nocturnes and the Billboard best-selling Sibelius, both recorded for Sony, his recent releases include Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring & other works for two pianos four hands, recorded with Marc-André Hamelin for Hyperion, and Schumann: Liederkreis & Kernerlieder, recorded with Matthias Goerne for Harmonia Mundi, both of which were nominated for Grammy Awards.

Andsnes has received Norway’s distinguished honor, Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, and in 2007, he received the prestigious Peer Gynt Prize, awarded by members of parliament to honor prominent Norwegians for their achievements in politics, sports, and culture. In 2004-05, he became the youngest musician (and first Scandinavian) to curate Carnegie Hall’s “Perspectives” series, and in 2015-16 he was the subject of the London Symphony Orchestra’s Artist Portrait Series. Having been 2010-11 Pianist-in-Residence of the Berlin Philharmonic, he went on to serve as 2017-18 Artist-in-Residence of the New York Philharmonic and 2019-20 Artist-in-Residence of Sweden’s Gothenburg Symphony. He is the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist Award and the Gilmore Artist Award, and, saluting his many achievements, Vanity Fair named Andsnes one of the “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, greatly influenced his style and philosophy of playing. Today Andsnes lives with his partner and their three children in Bergen. He is an Artistic Adviser at the city’s Prof. Jirí Hlinka Piano Academy, where he gives a masterclass to participating students each year.

Booklet for Sibelius