“The superb Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes continues “The Beethoven Journey,” as he calls his thoughtful exploration of the composer’s works, with the second installment in his survey of the five piano concertos. This recording pairs the ebullient Second Concerto, which can often sound like an audacious extension of Haydn, with the noble, and mercurial, Fourth Concerto, in which Beethoven takes the genre into realms of the poetic and the mystical. In these elegant, vibrant performances, Mr. Andsnes intriguingly reveals the magisterial qualities of the earlier work and the classical directness of the later one. He does double-duty as pianist and conductor, drawing impressive playing from the remarkable Mahler Chamber Orchestra.“
Source: The New York Times