Gramophone Magazine has just announced its Editor’s Choices for the November issue featuring Leif Ove Andsnes’ new Sibelius album.
Reviewing the album, Stephen Plaistow writes “It was the late Charles Rosen who insisted that the only way music becomes established as part of a living repertory is through musicians wanting to perform it. Leif Ove Andsnes is at pains not to claim too much: Sibelius’s piano music ‘inhabits a private world, it is almost not for the public, but something to play for a friend, or even alone’; but his taste and cultivated musicianship have come together to promote an aspect of Sibelius’s output that has customarily been regarded as not worth the bother. Of 117 opus numbers, 19 denote works for solo piano, and Andsnes is on a mission to bring the best of them out of the shadows. He made this recording in Berlin a year ago, and Sony has given him excellent sound. His advocacy is strong and pitched just right, and I’ve been won over willingly and rather unexpectedly, perhaps because like most people I tend to accept received ideas too unquestioningly. Sibelius was a giant and all the tracks here contribute to our knowledge of him.”
Read the full review and Leif Ove’s Gramophone blog about Sibelius online
Source: Gramophone