Risør Chamber Music Festival featuring Leif Ove Andsnes at Carnegie Hall
Norway comes to New York when Carnegie Hall presents four concerts with Risør Chamber Music Festival featuring Leif Ove Andsnes on December 1-4 in New York.
For one week every June, the charming village of Risør on Norway’s southeastern coast provides an idyllic backdrop for one of the world’s most celebrated chamber music festivals. This December, world-renowned musicians from the 2010 festival, led by Co-Artistic Directors Leif Ove Andsnes and Lars Anders Tomter, bring the magic of Risør to our shores.
December 1 at 7:30 pm | Zankel Hall
The Risør Chamber Music Festival opens its residency with a piece of Carnegie Hall history. The first performance of Bartók’s 1940 Contrasts created a sensation in this Hall when Benny Goodman, Joseph Szigeti, and the composer himself performed it. Another piece that created a sensation at its premiere—it actually caused riots—was Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, heard here in the composer’s rarely performed two-piano version.
The program:
Leif Ove Andsnes, Piano
Marc-André Hamelin, Piano
Øyvind Bjorå, Violin
Martin Fröst, Clarinet
Risør Festival Strings
BARTÓK Contrasts for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano
HONEGGER Symphony No. 2, “Symphonie pour cordes”
BERG Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 5
STRAVINSKY Le sacre du printemps (version for two pianos)
December 2 at 7:30 pm | Zankel Hall
When Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times visited Risør in 2005, he was struck at how the festival founders, Andsnes and Tomter, created provocative programs that brought together music from the past and present. On this concert, the Risør players highlight recent pieces by two leading Scandinavian composers, and combine them with Debussy’s musical nod to the French Baroque and one of Mozart’s last works.
The Program:
Leif Ove Andsnes, Piano
Martin Fröst, Clarinet
Henning Kraggerud, Violin
Maria Angelika Carlsen, Violin
Lars Anders Tomter, Viola
Torleif Thedéen, Cello
Risør Festival Strings
DEBUSSY Sonata for Cello and Piano in D Minor
ROLF WALLIN Under City Skin (US Premiere)
BENT SØRENSEN Schattenlinie (US Premiere)
MOZART Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in A Major, K. 581
December 3 at 8:00 pm | Stern/Perelman Hall
This diverse program showcases the variety for which the Risør festival is known. Fröst shines in the piece that Benny Goodman commissioned from Copland and premiered at Carnegie Hall. Brueggergosman sings Mahler’s song cycle in a 1920 arrangement that Schoenberg made for his private music society in Vienna. And Andsnes, one of the festival’s artistic directors, and the Risør Festival Strings demonstrate their skill in music by R. Strauss, Mozart, and Bartók.
The Program
Measha Brueggergosman, Soprano
Leif Ove Andsnes, Piano
Marc-André Hamelin, Piano
Martin Fröst, Clarinet
Henning Kraggerud, Violin
Lars Anders Tomter, Viola
Torleif Thedéen, Cello
Risør Festival Strings
R. STRAUSS Sextet from Capriccio, Op. 85
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 14 in E-flat Major, K. 449
MAHLER Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (arr. Schoenberg)
COPLAND Clarinet Concerto
BARTÓK Divertimento for Strings
December 4 at 7:30 pm | Zankel Hall
This is your last chance this season to hear the Risør musicians at Carnegie Hall. They join Brueggergosman, a guest at last summer’s festival, for Chausson’s lament for love lost. You’ll also hear music by Grieg, Liszt, Duparc, Brahms, and Wagner.
The Program
Measha Brueggergosman, Soprano
Leif Ove Andsnes, Piano
Marc-André Hamelin, Piano
Henning Kraggerud, Violin
Lars Anders Tomter, Viola
Torleif Thedéen, Cello
GRIEG Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 in F Major, Op. 8
LISZT “Oh! Quand je dors” (“Élégie Etienne Monnier”)
DUPARC “Au pays où se fait la guerre”
BRAHMS “Ständchen,” Op. 106, No. 1
WAGNER “Im Treibhaus” from Wesendonck Lieder, Op. 91
CHAUSSON Chanson perpétuelle, Op. 37
BRAHMS Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25
Source: Royal Norwegian Embassy
