Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes & Mahler Chamber Orchestra to Play Carnegie Hall This Month

Carnegie Hall presents pianist Leif Ove Andsnes leading the Mahler Chamber Orchestra from the keyboard in a two-night series of Beethoven's five piano concertos in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. On Monday, February 23 at 8:00 p.m., they perform Beethoven's Piano Concertos Nos. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 19; 3 in C Minor, Op. 37; and 4 in G Major, Op. 58. On Wednesday, February 25 at 8:00 p.m., they play Piano Concertos Nos. 1 in C Major, Op. 15; and 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73, "Emperor."

The February 23 concert airs on WQXR 105.9 FM in New York as part of the fourth annual Carnegie Hall Live broadcast and digital series, produced by WQXR and Carnegie Hall and hosted by WQXR's Jeff Spurgeon. Concerts in the series are available for live streaming on wqxr.org and carnegiehall.org/wqxr. During every live broadcast, WQXR and Carnegie Hall will host live web chats, including Twitter commentary by the broadcast team, from backstage and in the control room, connecting national and international fans to the music and to each other. This year, the WFMT Radio Network, the classical music and arts radio distributor and producer based in Chicago, has signed on to distribute select live concerts nationally. The complete Carnegie Hall Live line-up will also be available via WFMT Radio Network to public radio stations throughout the United States and internationally as a 13-part series starting in April 2015.

Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra are in the midst of a Beethoven cycle, "The Beethoven Journey," over the years 2012-2015, with Mr. Andsnes leading the orchestra from the piano. Beethoven's five piano concertos and the Choral Fantasy are performed in more than 60 concerts in over 10 countries and have been released by Sony Classical on CD. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra accompanies the cycle with the outreach project "Feel the Music," which invites hearing-impaired children across Europe to experience music with all of their senses. "Feel the Music" was honored with the international music outreach prize "YEAH! Young EARopean Award" in September 2013. In September 2014, Sony Classical released the third album of the Beethoven cycle with Mr. Andsnes as soloist and conductor, featuring Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 and the Choral Fantasy.

The New York Times has called Leif Ove Andsnes "a pianist of magisterial elegance, power, and insight." With his commanding technique and searching interpretations, the celebrated Norwegian pianist has won acclaim worldwide; the Wall Street Journal named him "one of the most gifted musicians of his generation." Mr. Andsnes gives recitals and plays concertos in the world's leading concert halls and with its foremost orchestras, besides being an active recording artist. An avid chamber musician, he served as co-artistic director of the Risør Festival of Chamber Music for nearly two decades and was music director of California's 2012 Ojai Music Festival. He was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame in July 2013.

In the 2014-15 season, Mr. Andsnes has embarked on the final leg of "The Beethoven Journey," his epic four-year focus on the master composer's five piano concertos. With the Mahler Chamber Orchestra-his fellow travelers since the project's inception-he leads complete Beethoven concerto cycles from the keyboard in high-profile residencies in Bonn, Hamburg, Lucerne, Vienna, Paris, New York, Shanghai, Tokyo, and London, in addition to performing Beethoven concertos in Boston's Celebrity Series and a host of key venues across Europe and Asia. He undertakes further Beethoven collaborations with such world-class ensembles as the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas, the London Philharmonic and Osmo Vänskä, and the Munich Philharmonic and Thomas Dausgaard. Last season, in addition to a wealth of "Beethoven Journey" orchestral engagements, Mr. Andsnes undertook a 19-city solo recital tour of the US, Europe, and Japan, presenting an all-Beethoven program in New York, Chicago, London, Vienna, Berlin, Rome, Tokyo, and more.

"The Beethoven Journey" series has already proved a resounding success: the first volume, featuring the First and Third concertos, was named iTunes' Best Instrumental Album of 2012 and awarded Belgium's Prix Caecilia, while the second, a pairing of the Second and Fourth, was hailed as "a landmark of artistic integrity, intelligence, and musical insight" (Telegraph, UK).

Mr. 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 Bach to the present day. He has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards 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 Mr. Andsnes's 2004 recording of Grieg's Piano Concerto with Mariss Jansons and the Berliner Philharmoniker 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. 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 Sorensen's The Shadows of Silence, both of which were written for him.

In its 16 years of existence, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO) has developed into one of the most artistically interesting and successful ensembles on the international classical music scene. The orchestra has performed in 36 countries on four continents thus far, including its Iceland debut in summer 2014. The MCO has been orchestra in residence in the northern Italian city of Ferrara since 1998. Since 2003, the orchestra resides at Lucerne Festival each summer, where it also forms the core of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra founded by Claudio Abbado. With the MCO Academy and the education and outreach program MCO Landings, the orchestra is involved in teaching and community work. The European Union appointed the Mahler Chamber Orchestra an official European Cultural Ambassador from 2011-2013.

The MCO was founded in 1997 by former members of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra who wished to continue making music together. With support from Claudio Abbado, they created their own ensemble to fulfill their vision of an independent international orchestra that plays at the highest level. The ensemble had its breakthrough in the summer of 1998 with a production of Mozart's Don Giovanni under the direction of Claudio Abbado at the opera festival in Aix-en-Provence. The 45 core members of the MCO come from 20 different countries and live all over Europe. The orchestra's central repertoire consists of symphonic works and operas of the Viennese classical and early Romantic periods. The ensemble's flexible structure makes it possible for the MCO to perform a very wide range of repertoire, including everything from chamber music to large symphonies and operas, from baroque to world premieres of contemporary works. Experimenting with repertoire, venues, and concert formats is fundamental to the identity of the MCO.

Daniel Harding is, alongside founder Claudio Abbado, the conductor who has played the most significant role in the orchestra's history: He has enjoyed a close relationship with the MCO since 1998, when he became Principal Guest Conductor at the age of 22. In 2003, the orchestra chose him as their Music Director, and in 2008, he became Principal Conductor. In summer 2011, the musicians voted unanimously to give Daniel Harding the permanent title of Conductor Laureate. Leif Ove Andsnes is also a significant figure and became the orchestra's official Artistic Partner in 2012.

Further significant artistic partnerships include the composer George Benjamin, the conductors Daniele Gatti, Andris Nelsons, and Teodor Currentzis, and the soloists Martha Argerich, Mitsuko Uchida, and Isabelle Faust. The MCO has made 28 CD recordings, among them several award-winners. In 2013, the recording of George Benjamin's opera Written on Skin was released; the piece was premiered by the MCO at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence in 2012 under the direction of the composer and honored with the International Opera Award 2013.

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