Leif Ove Andsnes Plays Unfamiliar Dvořák for Sony

courtesy of Jensen Artists

This past Friday Sony Classical released its latest album of solo performances by pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. The album is devoted entirely to a single compositions by Antonín Dvořák, his Opus 85 collection entitled Poetic Tone Pictures. The Amazon.com Web page plays up Andsnes’ interests in “lesser known piano music,” citing the Sibelius album released in 2017 as “prior evidence.” Andsnes himself was quoted as follows: “I have to say I think that this is the great forgotten cycle of the [sic] 19th century piano music.”

To pick a semantic nit, “forgotten” suggests the implication of “once remembered.” Out of fairness to the “historical record,” I feel obliged to observe that Opus 85 was included in the Dvořák Edition box set, released by Brilliant Classics in April of 2015. The title makes it clear that this was not a “complete works” release; but the collection of 45 CDs includes five devoted entirely to solo piano music, which had previously been released on its own as part of the Brilliant Classics Piano Library. All five of the CDs presented performances by Inna Poroshina, who recorded them in Kiev in 1997 and 1998. Could it be that a friend may have introduced Andsnes to these recordings and the he was the one that “forgot” them?

To be fair, however, I suspect that most of us have seldom, if at all, encountered Dvořák’s solo piano music in a recital setting or even on recording. I certainly do not object to Sony providing a “bully pulpit” for Andsnes. For that matter. Sony may well have had a hand in Andsnes preparing his program for his Great Performers Series recital in Davies Symphony Hall this coming January. According to his Web page on the San Francisco Symphony Web site, he will conclude his recital with Dvořák’s Opus 85; and I definitely plan to be there to experience this music in recital, rather than on either of the two recordings I have at my disposal!