The Beethoven Journey has been singled out by both The New York Times and The Guardian as one of the best performances of the year in the States and the UK:
The New York Times wrote: “Leif Ove Andsnes In a recent article, I questioned the wisdom of conductors attempting to make a big statement through a cycle of the well-trod Beethoven symphonies. The composer’s piano concertos are less encumbered with extra-musical baggage. And in a project he called “The Beethoven Journey,” the exceptional pianist Leif Ove Andsnes played the five works in two exhilarating concerts at Carnegie Hall in February with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, conducting from the keyboard and delivering scintillating and probing performances that had the integrated quality of fine chamber-music playing.”
The Guardian wrote: “The endpoint of Leif Ove Andsnes’s four-year world tour of Beethoven – all five concertos and the Choral Fantasy in three concerts with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, in finely crafted yet joyously spontaneous performances. Read the full review”