Customer Reviews

Haydn: Piano Concertos

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Is Leif Ove Andsnes the greatest pianist of our time? I strongly doubt it. Yet every recording I've heard from him is replete with his brilliant technique and lyrical phrasing on the keyboard. This is yet another excellent example, which proves that he feels as comfortable playing Haydn as he does with Grieg's or Chopin's Romantic piano scores. Yet his playing isn't at all Romantic here, but more of a subtle, almost delicate, nature, which is fiery only when called for by the score. The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra offers ample support, never overshadowing Andsnes' playing. The sound quality is exceptional.

These are exceptional performances, of great emotional maturity, on a par with his collection of Haydn sonatas. The majestic concerto in D is for once not taken too fast. We are much in debt to the musicality of Mr Andsnes, and the skill of the recording technicians.

Compared to Haydn's symphonies, piano sonatas and string quartets, his piano concerti are relative rarities. Athough they do not deserve to be ranked together with Mozart and Beethoven's masterpieces in the same medium, they are certainly worth hearing.

On the evidence of this sparkling CD, the 3 piano concertos as heard here are shortish, tuneful and pleasant affairs. Andsnes as conductor and soloist makes the most of the works. His lively and alert pianism is a joy to the ears, as is the beautifully clear and detailed sound.

This is one of those discs that you might elect to play after a tiring day when you need to relax and chill out. A treasurable collection.

This disc is a perfect example of how to make a disc worth listening to in a thoroughly saturated market. Choose repertoire that has more or less been ignored by artists and record companies and treat it as though you have discovered something new and exciting, and that is excatcly what you will get. At no time listening to this will you get a sense of these works being poor relations of Mozart's concertos.

There is a wonderful quiet, intensity to these performances achieved through brisk tempi, delicate touch and wonderfully attentive accompaniment. Grumpy Grabowski misses the point when comparing these recordings to Richter. Andses has made an aesthetic decision by playing the works in this way and the sense of unity thoughout the disc is a big part of its success. His playing is not about making personal statements. The slow movements are sometimes ravishingly cool.

Highly recommended.

The Norwegian piano star Leif Ove Andsnes is world-wide recognized as a fine musician, with a huge repertoire spanning diverse styles from baroque masters to contemporary composers. Also, successfully championing Nordic music whose essence he knows from inside, Andsnes belongs to the wonderful class of pianists who puts the composer (and his score) above all temptations to exhibit performer's sparkling skills or musical obsessions.

This way of playing is revealed copiously on this recording, where he performs as soloist and conductor three of the most celebrated keyboard concertos in Joseph Haydn's catalogue. Paired by Norwegian Chamber Orchestra (excellent chamber ensemble!), Andsnes reads with suppleness D major, F major and G major piano concertos by that beloved Viennese maestro of the classicism with a special care for the delicate and witty mood the XVIIIth century claims. His touch is graceful without being boring, lively but not over-energetic, elegant yet way far from simply pedantic. Pianist and orchestra - an inspired match for music!

Two years ago I attended a chamber recital of Andsnes (with Christian & Tanja Tetzlaff) at the Romanian Atheneum in Bucharest during the "George Enescu" festival. I could praise then - and recognize now, on this recording - the same elegant effectiveness in his playing, his phrases imbued with romantic fervor (when it came to Schumann's Trio), or the joyful approach (in Mozartean pages), his constant altitude in dealing with the deep meanings of the score.

Leif Ove Andsnes - in my opinion - stands as one of the most important pianists of the century with a sane vision of the music he performs, fond of going to meet the music in its own terms rather than waiting for music to come to overlap his affinities and skills. In short, a musician who serves the music and not is he served by it.
Five stars!

I bought this CD some years ago and have played it absent-mindedly a good few times without particularly responding to it, but it was only after reading less than glowing reviews by colleagues on Amazon.com that I actually listened to it properly - and, by jiminy, they are so right: while these performances have a certain breathless excitement to them they are utterly unvarying in their headlong rush towards the finishing post. There is no pointing of rhythms, no rubato, none of the witty little hesitations and ornamentations that bring out Haydn's sly humour. In fact they mostly resemble Glenn Gould's earlier assault on the Goldbergs, which I enjoy as a tour de force but is in a manner wholly inappropriate to Haydn. The mystery to me is, first, why Andsnes chose to play this music on a modern piano when he doesn't want to exploit its potential for colour or pedalling and secondly, why this is at modern pitch when the orchestra is scraping away in what at times sounds like a parody of HIP practice, they are so clipped, bland and bald in expression.

If you want this music treated with imagination and respect, there is perfectly lovely bargain account on Arte Nova.

Inebriates - step forward and pay attention!

If you're tired of putting your head in a bathtub of icy water after a Close Encounter of the Fourth Kind with the turps or `whacky tobaccy' then this disc is a viable alternative. It will also reduce your water-bill.

This is Haydn played icily as Johann Sebastian Bach. Indeed, I broke out into a cold sweat myself whenever a chance arose in the score to extemporise - was Andsnes about to embellish proceedings with a fugue or two part invention? Sure our Norwegian buddy uses a modern-day piano but he might as well being playing a harpsichord for all the licence he affords to it. Indeed, even Angela Hewitt in her wonderful survey of the Toccatas is far less timorous of the expressive palette of the beast at her disposal.

Reactionary old me - I thought that the old distinctions between Baroque / Classical / Romantic were still pertinent. In avoiding the excesses of the third category, performers such as Andsnes default to the first and thus bypass the rightful medium.

Elsewhere, the chamber orchestra is infected by Hogwoodism in everything but pitch. As John Grabowski rightly noted, the recital is devoid of humour. One only has to turn to the Entremont cycle on Teldec to find its antithesis on every level.

It's enough to make me hit the cask-wine. As least I can do so in the knowledge that a remedy is at hand that will sober me up tomorrow and not make a mess in the bathroom. Cheers Leif!

I'd never heard Leif Ove Andsnes before this recording, though I've heard a great deal about him, all of it flattering. I hope he's in general better than this recording, which left me flat. This is humorless Haydn, played with glassy polish and little else. There's no subtlty or wit in the performances, his pedaling is uniform (and uniformly dull), he's colorless, and he rushes the tempi constantly. A little is forgivable--we don't want stiff metronomic performances. But sometimes he nearly jumps ahead a whole beat, as in his entrance in the D Major concerto. Overall a disappointment, and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra plays the way he does...blandly. Hear Richter in the D major if you want to hear some impressive Haydn, though his Haydn is almost completely out of print. Pity. He shows you how it's done, and how much range you're missing by going with Leif.

Leif Ove Andsnes is the best! ...in everything he has recorded.