The 15/16 season will see Leif Ove Andsnes star in “Concerto – A Beethoven Journey” (2015), a new documentary from award-winning British director and filmmaker Phil Grabsky. Scheduled for release in cinemas in September 2015, “Concerto – A Beethoven Journey” offers an in-depth exploration of Beethoven’s life and music as Grabsky accompanies the celebrated Norwegian pianist on “The Beethoven Journey”: his monumental four-season focus on the master composer’s music for piano and orchestra.
Leif Ove comments:
“My immersion in the concertos of Beethoven over the past four seasons has been an exhilarating experience, and it has been extremely gratifying to witness audiences responding with such extraordinary enthusiasm to the music. I’m thrilled that the Concerto documentary by Phil Grabsky – a filmmaker who is so passionate about music and has made so many wonderful films about composers – will be coming out. I’m also happy that some of Beethoven’s music will be on my recital programs this season; without it, I might suffer from serious withdrawal!”
For a list of screening dates, click here.
Gramophone previews Concerto
Following Beethoven performances by Andsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra at the BBC Proms—the last stop in “The Beethoven Journey” – Gramophone’s James Jolly reported:
“If you’re suffering withdrawal symptoms from music-making of such freshness and imagination, there’s a treat in store on the horizon. Phil Grabsky’s film ‘Concerto: A Beethoven Journey’ …Andsnes proves a wonderful guide to these five extraordinary works, speaking with humility, wisdom and insight about what they mean to him and the challenges they present to the performer. He is disarmingly frank about his relationship with the works when in his twenties and how he came to terms with them. He explains what made him determined to perform them over the course of a few years, and record them. Footage from the concerts in Prague, which Sony Classical used for its CD releases, forms the backbone of the film. We also see Andsnes and Gustavo Dudamel talking about the works prior to performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.”
See the trailer of “Concerto – A Beethoven Journey” below: