Dvor¿¿k: Poetic Tone Pictures

by Leif Ove Andsnes

Overview

Fresh off his album of piano music of Sibelius, Leif Ove Andsnes returns with another late Romantic composer not much known for his keyboard output, Antonin Dvorak. Although they come from the creatively rich final period of his life, these works are not much played, at least outside of Czech lands. They have been recorded from time to time, but Andsnes is the first "name" artist to take them up. It is hard to understand why they have remained obscure; they are charming pieces with depth for the pianist to sink his teeth into. Perhaps their relative technical simplicity has caused their neglect, but in a way that is the appeal of the music; Dvorak's pieces are pictorial salon works dressed up with compositional sophistication. Sample the "Sorrowful Reverie," a Chopinesque piece whose harmonic evolution keeps the listener guessing. Andsnes is fully aware of the layers in the music, and his takes on these pieces will linger in the mind. Only the engineering in Trondheim's Olavshalle is troublesome; it adds an unwanted edge to Andsnes' playing, and picks up extraneous noise but in the main, this is another fine outing from one of the pianistic stars of the day, one which landed on best-seller charts in the fall of 2022. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	11/04/2022
Label:	Sony Classical
UPC:	0196587406714
Rank:	116552

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Leif Ove Andsnes   Primary Artist,Piano

Technical Credits

Jack Ryan Smith   Executive Producer
Helge Hansen   Photography
Havard Christensen   Engineer
Jack Moy   Artwork
John Fraser   Recording Producer
Arne Akselberg   Engineer
Julia Thomas   Editing
Antonin Dvorak   Composer