Leif Ove Andsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra have just completed a three concert residency at Vienna’s famous Musikverein and their performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 3 and Choral Fantasy will be broadcast on Austrian radio’s Ö1 on 9 December. The performance will also be streamed on the World Concert Hall for all to listen to around the world on Tuesday 9 December at 09.05 GMT.
Reviewing the residency, the Vienna press wrote
“A change from Beethoven’s five piano concertos – that might be the first impulse (to wish for). But on the first of three nights at the Vienna Musikverein it soon became clear that the Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra aren’t interested in good-risk-free repertoire. This does not mean that an attempt was made in a revolutionary gesture to reinvent the wheel that is Beethoven. Rather that through the quasi-ideological dividing line between “traditional” and “modern” approaches this contemporary interpretation showed that playing a 200 year old work, could appear new to our ears.
“Such a rare moment occurred with the C-minor concerto on Monday: Andsnes, directing from the piano, created an ideal pace, fluid enough not to let the main theme seem cumbersome, but neither hurried. When did you last hear this orchestral introduction so finely played?”
Helmar Dumbs, Die Presse, 3 December 2014