Highlights from the first reviews for Leif Ove Andsnes’ new Sibelius album:

“How could such beauties have escaped us? What didn’t we know about Sibelius’s piano works … Negligible compared to his orchestral corpus, really? No doubt we had not met the magician who would know how to convey it and magnify it … Leif Ove Andsnes, who already released the album “Horizons” containing a Sibelius Study, has harnessed a small selection from the one hundred and fifty pieces for piano that punctuate the entire creative life of the Finnish composer …  a triumph of serenity, naturalness and charm”.

Diapason, September 2017

 

“… It’s when you stop listening for “replacement” symphonies that you discover that Sibelius’s piano repertoire offers one jewel after another and Leif Ove Andsnes’s selection of miniatures, composed between 1890 and 1929, represents some of the finest … Almost all the works here are exquisitely lyrical and instantly set the mood, and Andsnes’ expert control over the piano colours expands the poetic effect of these shy keyboard studies … written for home enjoyment, and this beautifully performed recording gives just that.”

Klassisk Musikk, 5 September 2017 

“PIANISTIC GEMS … an hour of delightfully melancholic music which, from Bagatelles to Sonatina, shows with forceful contrasts the evocative power of the melodist Sibelius, and also his taste for orchestral colours … Andsnes brings out the depth and delicacy, which only reinforces the poetry of the ensemble. A beautiful rediscovery.”

Le Figaro, 5 September 2017