Leif Ove Andsnes returns to the States for a five-city solo recital tour next January. His program combines two East European works with two by Robert Schumann, whose 4 Klavierstücke and Carnaval flank the first book of Janáček’s On an Overgrown Path and selections from Játékok (“Games”), György Kurtág’s ongoing collection of miniatures. After kicking off in Athens, GA (Jan 21), the tour takes him to Seattle (Jan 23), Stanford (Jan 25), New York’s Carnegie Hall (Jan 27), and the Boston Celebrity Series (Jan 30). Anticipating the pianist’s return to Carnegie Hall, The New York Times confides: “You go to a recital by the pianist Leif Ove Andsnes to be as surprised as you are awed. His dignified virtuosity is a given.”
Schumann’s Carnaval also features in Andsnes’s fall recital program, bookended by Grieg’s sole piano sonata and the poetic miniatures of Chopin’s 24 Preludes, of which his interpretation previously prompted the Minnesota Star Tribune to marvel: “Andsnes made them a fascinating odyssey, an expertly articulated compendium of myriad emotions and moods delivered with technical precision and heartfelt expressiveness.” Besides performing it to launch the 15th season of Montreal’s Bourgie Hall (Oct 2), Andsnes tours this program to Brazil, with dates in Rio de Janeiro (Sep 23) and São Paulo (Sep 28 & 29), and then to Asia, with appearances in Taipei, Taiwan (Oct 26) and in Tokyo (Oct 30), Yokohama (Nov 1), and Hyogo (Nov 3) in Japan.