Liverpool’s Daily Post reviews Leif Ove Andsnes’ debut with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Vasily Petrenko
“ALL the hallmarks of a heavy-going couple of hours were there. The overture to a frustratingly tragic Wagner music-drama and the introspective intensity of Brahms. So it was down to Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto to lighten the mood.
“Indeed, after what felt a rather sedate opening to the allegro moderato first movement, soloist Leif Ove Andsnes, gradually powered up and the performance became more electrifying until the sparkling vivace of the rondo finale.
“Conductor Vasily Petrenko kept the whole first movement rather restrained and it was not until the searing cadenza that the whole piece blossomed.
“At all times, Andsnes’s playing was impeccable, absolutely precise and clean-cut. His reappearance, surely, is keenly awaited.”
Source: Liverpool Daily Post