Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes has lent his distinctive, sensitive artistry to works ranging from Bach to contemporary compositions since he was a teenager.
But there has been one major area of the repertoire that his fans have not seen him fully explore until recently: the music of Beethoven, who wrote five concertos, 32 sonatas and numerous other solo piano works.
“I never made him my real focus before,” Andsnes, 43, says. “I had played him, but it felt more and more important for me to set aside time and do it properly.”
In 2012, Andsnes began “The Beethoven Journey,” a four-year project in which he is recording the composer’s concertos and giving 150 performances in 55 cities. Monday at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton and Wednesday at Carnegie Hall in New York, he plays the Variations in F., op. 34, and the Sonatas No. 11 in B-flat, op. 22; No. 28 in A, op. 101; and the “Appassionata,” No. 23 in f, op. 57.
Source: The Newark Star-Ledger