Customer Reviews

Leif Ove Andsnes - The long, long winter night ~ Grieg · Tveitt · Johansen · Valen · Saeverud

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Leif Ove Andsnes is a fine musician who feels an affinity to his Scandinavian roots as he so ably demonstrates in this exquisite recording of Norwegian piano music. Yes, we all know the Grieg pieces and Andsnes plays them with shimmering intensity and flair. But it is the piano works of David Monrad Johansen, Geirr Tveitt, Fartein Valen, and Harald Saeverud that come as special surprises. Each of these composers lived well into the 20th Century and yet their music, while embracing forms of modern idiom, simply 'feels' Nordic. Here are some of the more ethereal melodies and folksong-inspired rhythms in the literature for the solo piano and Andsnes plays them to perfection.Another fine aspect of this generous recording is the engineering choices of allowing enough silence between pieces to allow the air to breathe around the one last performed and inhale, ready for the next. This is a very special album of new music that should encourage other pianists (and audiences) to pay closer attention to Norwegian composers. Recommended. Grady Harp, November 2004

To explore the culture of your homeland with the sophistication and dedication that Andsnes expresses on the album deserves a Nobel Prize. This dynamic young Norwegian pianist escews cultural imperialism and exploitation and gives pride to those who recognise the depth and value of the music that has evolved over time in this seemingly far far land. This collection of Norwegian music, echoing so often the dynamics of the landscape and psychological interrogation of the nature of time ~ long long winter nights, and by implication long long summer days. Andsnes bears witness to the craft and creativity of his forebearers with style beautifully expressing their ideas and ambitions. A wonderfully powerful cd. Enjoy!

... when you have to get your practicing done in Norway or Sweden. Those long, long summer days are meant for other pleasures. Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) and the other four Norwegian-born composers presented on this CD would surely understand me.

Grieg is often called "the Chopin of the North" but my ears detect a far stronger influence on his music from Schumann and Lizst, particularly in his keyboard miniatures. Even in his last decade, when reportedly he became enamored of the Hardanger fiddle and the folk tradition it apotheosized, his "folkeviser" and "slåtter" remind me instantly of Schumann's early "Kinderszenen". Perhaps pianist Leif Ove Andsnes perceives the same similarity ... or perhaps its Andsnes's distinctive 'touch' on the keyboard that accentuates the Schumannesque qualities of Grieg's piano works.

But the influence of Grieg on younger Norwegian composers was beyond question; you'll hear it in the pieces by David Monrad Johansen (1888-1974), Geirr Tveitt (1908-1981), and Harald Sæverud (1897-1992) on this recording, all of them based on Norwegian folk music themes as embedded in pianism by Grieg but with varying shades of experimentation with atonalism and neo-Classicism. Oddly, the youngest of the group, Sæverud, sounds closer in 'affect' to the music of late 20th C folk-revival ensembles. All of these pieces are charming, fleeting, impressionistic miniatures, many of them shorter than two minutes. It's essentially the rich piano technique of Leif Ove Andsnes that brings them to life and makes them sparkle.

The exception, to my ears, is the single composition by Fartein Valen (1887-1952) - Variations for Klavier, Op. 23 - the longest and most fully developed piece on the CD. It's a seamless set of twelve variations on a twelve-tone sequence, with a coda. Valen was not a disciple of Arnold Schoenberg, however; in seeking an alternative to the influence of Grieg, he evolved his own polyphonic, loosely twelve-tone style, with results that are strangely melodic, wistfully lovely ... and very Norse in affect. These "Variasjoner for Klaver" are the most rigorously twelve-tone composition of his career, but even if you've "always hated dodecophonics", you may find that you enjoy this music purely intuitively. This is the most exciting track on the CD, in my opinion, exciting enough to send me searching for more of Fartein Valen ASAP.

Andsnes made this recording in 1997, presumably as a statement of his own Norwegian identity and sensibilities. But this music doesn't need any apologies or assertions of ethnic loyalty. It's good stuff, played superbly.

A collection of works by Norwegian composers, including several worthy lesser-known works, performed with superlative musicianship by Leif Ove Andsnes. Rhythmic passages churn, fast passages sparkle, lyrical passages sing, to great emotional effect. Andsnes makes his technical proficiency a servant to the compositions. Every composer should be so lucky to have an artist such as this play his works.

This album shows that Scandinavien music is not only Grieg. Compositions in different styles are performed in a wonderful way by Leif Ove Andsnes. The atmosphere is the same in all pieces: as in a long, long winter night.

I bought this on the strength of a recommendation by Jim Svejda. ("The Record Shelf", KUSC-FM, San Diego) (would that we had a station half as good here in San Francisco.) It does not disappoint. I see also that it won a Grammy. Well deserved!