| BUILDING UP TO THE RACHMANINOV CHALLENGE
9th March 2010
Following a single performance at London's Barbican Centre on 29th April, Leif Ove returns to the studio with the London Symphony Orchestra and Antonio Pappano to record Rachmaninov's Fourth Piano Concerto for release on EMI Classics this Autumn. Coupled with the Third Piano Concerto which Leif Ove and the LSO performed and recorded last year, this disc brings to a conclusion the pianist's complete cycle of Rachmaninov concertos.
Reviewing last year's performance of the third concerto, the Times observed "It's interesting that such an impulsive interpreter (as Pappano) has forged an enduring partnership with the pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. The two now have a pedigree (in the studio and in the concert hall) with the Rachmaninov piano concertos that spans almost six years, perhaps founded on the meeting of Andsnes's fastidious lyricism and Pappano's emotional honesty. In the first of two weekend concerts that encounter imbued Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 3 with an extra level of spice. One moment Pappano and a fired-up LSO would vigorously charge ahead, only for Andsnes to steal a moment of such clarity that it felt like we were suddenly being held in slow motion. I cannot think of many pianists who can field Rachmaninov's splayed chords and thundering passagework with as much limpid dexterity - reason enough, perhaps, to garner the huge ovations handed out by a capacity Barbican crowd."
Read about Leif Ove's approach to "The Rachmaninov Challenge"
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