Leif Ove Andsnes (L) – Gustavo Dudamel – collaborations of the best kind.
Over to Gothenburg by way of Madrid this week for a concert by The Gothenburg Symphony conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and featuring Leif Ove Ansdnes in music of Rachmaninoff and Chopin. It was recorded by Radio Finland on December 13, 2011.
The concert begins with a new work commissioned by the Gothenburg Symphony in 2008 by Esteban Benzecry – his Rituales Amerindios. It’s followed by Rachmaninoff’s Piano concerto Number 4 with Leif Ove Asdsnes, piano and Chopin’s Valse op42 Number 5 – The concert concludes with Sibelius: Symphony Number 2.
Leif Ove Andsnes: The New York Times calls Leif Ove Andsnes “a pianist of magisterial elegance, power, and insight,” and the Wall Street Journal names him “one of the most gifted musicians of his generation.” With his commanding technique and searching interpretations, the celebrated Norwegian pianist has won acclaim worldwide, playing concertos and recitals in the world’s leading concert halls and with its foremost orchestras, while building an esteemed and extensive discography. An avid chamber musician, he is the founding director of the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival, was co-artistic director of the Risør Festival of Chamber Music for nearly two decades, and served as music director of California’s Ojai Music Festival in 2012. He was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame in July 2013, and has received honorary doctorates from Norway’s Universities of Bergen and Oslo and New York’s Juilliard School.
Gustavo Dudambel is one of the most acclaimed conductors of his or any other generation. Among his many honors, he received the 2024 Queen Sofía Spanish Institute Award for Excellence and 2024 Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award; he was named Glenn Gould Prize Laureate in 2022 and received Spain’s 2020 Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts; the Konex Foundation Classical Music Award, and the Distinguished Artist Award from the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA) in 2019; the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, the Páez Medal of Art, and the Pablo Neruda Order of Artistic and Cultural Merit in 2018; the Americas Society Cultural Achievement Award in 2016; the 2014 Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society from the Longy School of Music; and the Medal of the University of Burgos, Spain, in 2021. Leading publications such as Musical America and Gramophone have named him their artist of the year. Dudamel has received honorary doctorates from The Juilliard School, Harvard University, the Universidad Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado in his hometown, the University of Gothenburg, and the Colburn School. He was inducted into l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in Paris as a Chevalier in 2009 and became an Officier in 2022. The Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela was awarded Spain’s prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts in 2008. Dudamel was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2009. In 2016, he delivered the keynote speech for recipients of the National Medal of Arts and the National Humanities Medal.
Enjoy the concert.
