Mozart Momentum - 1786 Leif Ove Andsnes

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791): Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488:
• 1 Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488: I. Allegro 11:05
• 2 Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488: II. Adagio 06:50
• 3 Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488: III. Allegro 07:52
• Recitative and Aria:
• 4 Mozart: Recitative and Aria: "Ch'io mi scordi di te?" - "Non temer, amato bene", K. 505 10:01
• Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, K. 493:
• 5 Mozart: Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, K. 493: I. Allegro 10:22
• 6 Mozart: Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, K. 493: II. Larghetto 09:14
• 7 Mozart: Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, K. 493: III. Allegretto 08:19
• Rondo in D Major, K.485:
• 8 Mozart: Rondo in D Major, K.485 04:35
• Piano Trio in B-Flat Major, K. 502:
• 9 Mozart: Piano Trio in B-Flat Major, K. 502: I. Allegro 08:11
• 10 Mozart: Piano Trio in B-Flat Major, K. 502: II. Larghetto 07:53
• 11 Mozart: Piano Trio in B-Flat Major, K. 502: III. Allegretto 05:46
• Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, K. 491:
• 12 Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, K. 491: I. Allegro 13:27
• 13 Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, K. 491: II. Larghetto 06:55
• 14 Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, K. 491: III. Allegretto 09:01
• Total Runtime 01:59:31

Info for Mozart Momentum - 1786

For six-time Gramophone Award-winner Leif Ove Andsnes, May 28 marks the release of MM/1785 by Sony Classical. The first volume of Mozart Momentum 1785/1786, his second project as the inaugural Artistic Partner of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO), the new album explores one of the most creative and seminal periods of the composer’s career. Andsnes leads the MCO from the keyboard in Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 20-22, joins members of the orchestra for his Piano Quartet in G minor, and plays his Fantasia in C minor for solo piano. Click here to stream Andsnes and the MCO performing the second movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20.

The pianist’s first collaboration with the MCO was a resounding success, culminating in the hit Sony Classical series The Beethoven Journey, named one of the “Best of 2014” by the New York Times and recognized with iTunes’ Best Instrumental Album, Belgium’s Prix Caecilia and BBC Music’s “Recording of the Year.” Indeed, his outstanding musical rapport with the orchestra is such that Gramophone marvels: “There’s so much more to this partnership than just exceptional playing; there’s a palpable sense of discovery.” As The Guardian puts it: “You’d be hard put to find a pianist and orchestra better matched.”

“There is something incredibly special for me about collaborating with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra again. After all the work we have done together, we’ve come to understand each other’s music-making better than ever. We really experienced the beauty of Mozart’s concertos as we rehearsed and recorded them together. It was a magical moment, and getting to share it with the fabulous musicians of the MCO overwhelms me with gratitude.” (Leif Ove Andsnes)

With “Mozart Momentum 1785/1786,” Andsnes and the MCO delve into what is not only a high point of the composer’s career, but one of the most remarkable periods in classical music history. In 1785 and 1786, Mozart wrote a series of masterpieces that would forever change the piano concerto. He re-examined the roles of the soloist and orchestra, discovering new possibilities for communication and dialogue between them. By showcasing the transformative part Mozart played in the genre’s development, Andsnes and the MCO hope to present a rich portrait of the Classical master at the top of his game.

The pianist comments: “When you realize how quickly Mozart developed during the early 1780s, it makes you ask: why did this happen? What was going on? And that’s what this project is all about. It’s about the momentum of his creativity at this time, which must have been inspired by the need for this kind of concert and these kinds of pieces where he could show his abilities as a composer, performer and improviser.”

In addition to the piano concertos, “Mozart Momentum 1785/1786” celebrates Mozart’s orchestral, solo and chamber works from the same period. MM/1785 features his C-minor Fantasia and First Piano Quartet, for which Andsnes is joined by MCO principals Matthew Truscott, Joel Hunter and Frank-Michael Guthmann, and, to complete the album, MCO concertmaster Truscott leads the orchestra from the violin in an account of Mozart’s Masonic Funeral Music.

Andsnes himself is already widely recognized as one of today’s leading interpreters of the composer’s music. The New York Times admires his “revelatory Mozart recordings,” Gramophone credits him with “the mark of a great pianist: always allowing Mozart his own voice,” and, after concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic, Austria’s DrehPunktKultur hailed him as “a first-class Mozart interpreter.” When Andsnes played Mozart’s Concertos Nos. 21 and 22 with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra last year, the Star Tribune marveled: “He would be on many critics’ shortlists of the top ten pianists in the world at present, and these opalescent, intellectually pleasing performances of Mozart concertos showed why.”

“Full of joy, clarity and sparkle” (Geoff Brown, The Times)

Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Leif Ove Andsnes, piano, direction

Leif Ove Andsnes
The New York Times calls Leif Ove Andsnes “a pianist of magisterial elegance, power, and insight,” and the Wall Street Journal names him “one of the most gifted musicians of his generation.” With his commanding technique and searching interpretations, the celebrated Norwegian pianist has won acclaim worldwide, playing concertos and recitals in the world’s leading concert halls and with its foremost orchestras, while building an esteemed and extensive discography. An avid chamber musician, he is the founding director of the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival, was co-artistic director of the Risør Festival of Chamber Music for nearly two decades, and served as music director of California’s Ojai Music Festival in 2012. He was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame in July 2013, and received honorary doctorates from New York’s Juilliard School and Norway’s University of Bergen in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

Andsnes is currently partnering with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO) on “Mozart Momentum 1785/86.” A major multi-season project exploring one of the most creative and seminal periods of the composer’s career, this sees the pianist lead the ensemble from the keyboard in accounts of Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 20–24 at key European venues, as well as recording them for Sony Classical. When it was released in May 2021, the project’s first album, MM/1785, was named “Record of the Week” by BBC Radio 3 and “Recording of the Month” by Gramophone magazine, which pronounced it “a remarkable achievement by all concerned.” “Mozart Momentum 1785/86” marks Andsnes’s second artistic partnership with the MCO, following the success of “The Beethoven Journey.” An epic four-season focus on the composer’s music for piano and orchestra, this took the pianist to 108 cities in 27 countries for more than 230 live performances, and is perhaps his most ambitious achievement to date. He led the MCO from the keyboard in complete Beethoven concerto cycles at high-profile residencies in Bonn, Hamburg, Lucerne, Vienna, Paris, New York, Shanghai, Tokyo, Bodø and London, besides collaborating with such leading international ensembles as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, London Philharmonic and Munich Philharmonic. The project was chronicled in the documentary Concerto – A Beethoven Journey (2016), and Andsnes’s partnership with the MCO was captured on the hit Sony Classical three-volume series The Beethoven Journey. The first volume was named iTunes’ Best Instrumental Album of 2012 and awarded Belgium’s Prix Caecilia, the second recognized with BBC Music’s coveted “2015 Recording of the Year Award,” and the complete series chosen as one of the “Best of 2014” by the New York Times.

Andsnes now records exclusively for Sony Classical. His previous discography comprises more than 30 discs for EMI Classics – solo, chamber, and concerto releases, many of them bestsellers – spanning repertoire from the time of Bach to the present day. He has been nominated for eleven Grammys and awarded many international prizes, including six Gramophone Awards. His recordings of the music of his compatriot Edvard Grieg have been especially celebrated: the New York Times named Andsnes’s 2004 recording of Grieg’s Piano Concerto with Mariss Jansons and the Berlin Philharmonic a “Best CD of the Year,” the Penguin Guide awarded it a coveted “Rosette,” and both that album and his disc of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces won Gramophone Awards. His recording of Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 9 and 18 was another New York Times “Best of the Year” and Penguin Guide “Rosette” honoree. He won yet another Gramophone Award for Rachmaninov’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 with Antonio Pappano and the Berlin Philharmonic. A series of recordings of Schubert’s late sonatas, paired with lieder sung by Ian Bostridge, inspired lavish praise, as did the pianist’s world-premiere recordings of Marc-André Dalbavie’s Piano Concerto and Bent Sørensen’s The Shadows of Silence, both of which were written for him. As well as Chopin: Ballades & Nocturnes and the Billboard best-selling Sibelius, both recorded for Sony, his recent releases include Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring & other works for two pianos four hands, recorded with Marc-André Hamelin for Hyperion, and Schumann: Liederkreis & Kernerlieder, recorded with Matthias Goerne for Harmonia Mundi, both of which were nominated for Grammy Awards.

Andsnes has received Norway’s distinguished honor, Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, and in 2007, he received the prestigious Peer Gynt Prize, awarded by members of parliament to honor prominent Norwegians for their achievements in politics, sports, and culture. In 2004-05, he became the youngest musician (and first Scandinavian) to curate Carnegie Hall’s “Perspectives” series, and in 2015-16 he was the subject of the London Symphony Orchestra’s Artist Portrait Series. Having been 2010-11 Pianist-in-Residence of the Berlin Philharmonic, he went on to serve as 2017-18 Artist-in-Residence of the New York Philharmonic and 2019-20 Artist-in-Residence of Sweden’s Gothenburg Symphony. He is the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist Award and the Gilmore Artist Award, and, saluting his many achievements, Vanity Fair named Andsnes one of the “Best of the Best” in 2005.

Leif Ove Andsnes was born in Karmøy, Norway in 1970, and studied at the Bergen Music Conservatory under the renowned Czech professor Jirí Hlinka. He has also received invaluable advice from the Belgian piano teacher Jacques de Tiège, who, like Hlinka, greatly influenced his style and philosophy of playing. Today Andsnes lives with his partner and their three children in Bergen. He is an Artistic Adviser at the city’s Prof. Jirí Hlinka Piano Academy, where he gives a masterclass to participating students each year.

Booklet for Mozart Momentum - 1786