About this Artist

• Biography

Editorial Reviews

In 1990, when Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes was a fresh-faced, fire-breathing virtuoso of 20, he signed with the Virgin Classics label and made a terrific series of recordings for them that captured his youthful brilliance in full flight. The first of those recordings was this coupling of Grieg's "A minor Concerto" and Liszt's "A major Concerto" with Grieg's "Lyric Pieces, Op. 65," added as an encore and re-released in 2007, it is still stupendous. Andsnes' dazzling tone, flashing attack, and coruscating technique is tremendously impressive, yet the ultimate effect of his performances is not that of a hot-shot barn-storming, but of a young poet striving to achieve the impossible -- and often succeeding. His cadenza in the opening Allegro of the Grieg, for example, is breathtaking in its effortless audacity and his double-octaves in the closing Allegro of Liszt's concerto are awe-inspiring in their reckless charisma. But there is a deep musicality to his playing, a way of shading a slur, molding a phrase, and shaping a theme, that transcends virtuosity and marked Andsnes then as an artist to watch -- a judgment that time has fully endorsed. Deftly accompanied by Dmitri Kitayenko and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Andsnes' performances here are well worth hearing by anyone who likes the works, no matter how many recordings of them they've already heard. James Leonard, All Music Guide

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