Leif Ove Andsnes - Ballad for Edvard Grieg

I always feel a sense of homecoming when I perform Grieg yet I dont think that this is necessarily because I am Norwegian. Griegs music has a universal feeling - a sense of drawing the listener in - and that is probably why he remains Norways most eminent composer even now, 100 years after his death." Leif Ove Andsnes September 4th 2007 marks the centenary of the death of Edvard Grieg, Norways greatest composer, and one of the most popular composers in musical history, whose tuneful melodies have been enjoyed by generations of music lovers in the concert hall, cinema and musical theatre. To commemorate the anniversary, EMI Classics will release Leif Ove Andsnes Ballad for Edvard Grieg, featuring the 2006 and 2007 Brit Awards Instrumentalist of the Year. Andsnes, arguably todays leading interpreter of Griegs piano music, is Norwegian himself and one of his countrys best-known and loved exports of recent years. The album features a new recording of the Ballade in G minor alongside Andsnes award-winning recording of the A Minor Piano Concerto, with the Berlin Philharmonic and Mariss Jansons and some of the later Lyric Pieces, recorded on Griegs own piano at his house in Troldhaugen, just outside Bergen. The fact that the Ballade in G minor is cast as a theme and fourteen variations isnt the only unusual thing about the work, as Andsnes points out. In complete contract to Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, who invariably began their variation sets with relatively simple themes, Grieg opens with the most beautifully harmonised melody in some ways its the best part of the piece! This immediately created the problem of where to go from there, and as a result the work is less to do with symphonic development on a grand scale but is rather a series of interrelated mood pictures that capture his frame of mind at the time. That said, he does manage to build the piece up to a spectacular climax over the last few variations, which is very difficult for the pianist to bring off. Some of the piano writing is enormously demanding and one has to find elegant pianistic solutions to some of the problems, especially towards the end where the music begins to dance and you have to drive it on with complete confidence. That was one of the reasons that I hadnt played the Ballade in public until now. In the past I had found it a rather uneven piece and had never felt very close to it, but now it feels like a special discovery. To close this celebratory programme in Griegs centenary year, Andsnes has selected some of his later piano miniatures. Composed between 1867 and 1901, the 66 Lyric Pieces (originally released in ten volumes) are testimony to Grieg's remarkable ability to establish a compelling atmosphere in just a few bars, in much the same way as Mendelssohn's Songs without Words and Bartóks Mikrokosmos. The essence of these pieces is in the harmony, says Andsnes. Grieg can say something incredibly personal in a single melodic line, but when the harmonies begin a whole musical world just opens up before you.

http://astore.amazon.co.uk/emi-jazz-class-21?%5Fencoding=UTF8&node=38

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Music

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• Leif
• Ove
• Andsnes
• Ballad
• for
• Edvard
• Grieg

[dailyrev]

I said this two years ago after I first heard this young man play: in 20 years, after he has fully matured as an artist and gone through much of the standard repertoire, people will say "Andsnes" alongside "Horowitz" "Rubinstein" "Serkin" and "Argerich." I've since seen him at Carnegie Hall, and I am still just as sure that he will become one of the greats. Every music lover alive today is fortunate to have this remarkable young man around.

[guitars2112]

I like how at 1:33 he's using gloves to handle Grieg's autograph scores and then just decides to touch his face with them.