GLYNDEBOURNE’S acoustic is not so clear for piano, at least from the stalls, as for opera but this barely detracted from a memorable recital by Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, starting with an assured account of Beethoven’s Waldstein sonata.
Mr Andsnes seemed even more at home in the four Ballades written by Brahms in his 20s. Brahms moves from grandeur to despair in this large-scale work, making great demands of the pianist with many rapid changes of tempo and tone.
Schoenberg’s Six Little Piano Pieces (some last well under a minute) enabled a sensitive musician like Mr Andsnes to explore the piano’s contrasting sonorities. The same was true on a grander scale of Beethoven’s final piano sonata with which he ended his advertised programme in an understated, moving performance.
After the serene resignation with which Beethoven ends his last piano sonata, the choice of encores was difficult, but Mr Andsnes chose first an ethereal piece by Gyorgy Kurtag and then a brilliant example of the Chopin playing with which he first came to international prominence in the 1990s.
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