MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Haydn: Piano Concertos Nos. 3, 4 and 11

When EMI Classics released Leif Ove Andsnes's album of Haydn Sonatas in 1998, press enthusiasm was palpable. 'The sheer joy he conveys is irresistible: Andsnes can throw off the most difficult-sounding scales and flourishes with insouciant bravura. ' His appreciation of Haydn's humour is infectious, ' wrote the Sunday Times. Gramophone concurred. 'Delectable performances ' [Andsnes's] playing ' marries classical refinement and clarity with a spontaneous exuberance, a sense that the next phrase is yet to be created. ' This is just the sort of playing - joyous, imaginative, involving - to win Haydn's sonatas a wider following.' Now, in a follow up to the Sonatas CD, EMI Classics releases performances of three Haydn piano concertos by Leif Ove Andsnes and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra.

Although the Hoboken catalogue attributes some 14 keyboard concerti to Franz Joseph Haydn, modern scholarship suggests that eight of these were probably the work of other composers and challenges the authenticity of several more. The three charming works performed on this recording, concertos nos. 3 in F major, 4 in G major and 11 in D major, are almost certainly by Haydn. It is clear from all three concertos that Haydn recognised the power and effectiveness of the piano as a solo instrument, although not always through expected virtuoso means. With typical judicious restraint, he shows that often the greatest effect derives from the simplest of means, for example, suggesting the intimacy of chamber music in the scoring for strings alone, with pairs of oboes and horns in the D major work only. The D major concerto, which dates from the 1780s, is the only one of the three concerti performed with any regularity today.

* * * * * five stars - Classic CD (May 2000)

Recording of the Month - Gramophone Magazine (April 2000)

"Rarely heard concertos, well worth an outing on disc and played here with spirit and perfectly judged scale by Leif Ove Andsnes. Fine accompaniments from the Norwegian CO." - (Gramophone)

Winner Gramophone Awards 2000 - Concerto

Note: cover may differ from that shown