24.08.2012
“WORLDCLASS REPLACEMENT”
On Wednesday Leif Ove Andsnes performed a recital at the Salzburg Festival replacing Krystian Zimerman who had to withdraw due to illness. The Salzburger Nachrichten opened its review with the comment "The "stand-in" for Zimerman took over the evening, but this was more than just a "substitute". The 42-year-old Norwegian Leif Ove Andsnes is one of the most exemplary and serious of musicians - not just of his generation. Any "star" attitude is alien to him .... this is "pure", unerringly precise piano playing."
Die Presse wrote of his performance of Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata " He's not one to rush to the forground interpretively. In him all things balance, the clear presentation of the structure is in the beautiful pianistic balance of the whole. And he is able to put into practice a wonderful technique which he never uses pretentiously ... making a fascinatingly clear Beethoven encounter."
"For a complete contrast came Chopin in the second half" wrote the Wiener Zeitung. "Here the technical brilliance was all about the sound and musical narrative. The Ballade No. 3 given with natural refinement was followed by a subtle Waltz group; in the Nocturne in B major Andsnes then compacted the trills into shimmering soundscapes and closed with the Ballade No. 1 for a rounded end to the recital, in which he showed himself as a sensitive and quiet virtuoso."
Photo credit © Wolfgang Lienbacher
