MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Horizons

"For a pianist who has attracted such celebrity, Leif Ove Andsnes has always eschewed attention-grabbing effects. Even this collection of encores comes over not as flashy showpieces but as a carefully considered traversal of moods and styles. For all their brevity, Andsnes clearly feels each piece deeply and works to find the emotion in the short span allotted."
Editor's Choice Gramophone Magazine Nov 2006

Five Stars (performance/sound) BBC Music Mag (Oct 06)

"I was lucky to grow up in a country where we can enjoy silence. To get to the mountains, to hear a brook running, a bird singing, that's really music for me"
Leif Ove Andsnes

'Unique among the piano virtuosos of his generation, Leif Ove Andsnes is a thinker, a listener, a keyboard poet'
New York Times

Horizons is Leif Ove Andsnes' most revealing album to date - an intimate musical journey with one of today's most exciting young pianists, full of dramatic and poetic moments that will inspire both new and committed listeners alike.

Horizons features nearly two dozen short piano works by a wide variety of composers. These works, which Andsnes often performs as encores at his recitals, carry a special importance for him; they are works he discovered at significant times in his career, tributes to teachers and other great interpreters, and pieces with strong connections to beloved places at home and abroad.

"I grew up on the island of Karmøy on Norway's west coast, and whenever I go back what strikes me immediately is the horizon and the way it is constantly changing. It is always windy there, and as a result the sky always looks different…I was lucky to grow up in a country where we can enjoy silence. To get to the mountains, to hear a brook running, a bird singing, that's really music for me" - Leif Ove Andsnes.

Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes is one of the most honored recording stars in his country's history. Andsnes recently picked up a record eighth Spellemann Award, Norway's equivalent of a Grammy - Andsnes won best classical album honors for his recording of Rachmaninoff's First and Second Piano Concertos. That same CD was also honoured this winter by Germany's music critics, who gave it their prestigious Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.