Leif Ove Andsnes

& Chiaroscuro Quartet

Luigi Boccherini & Robert Schumann

Period instrument performances trace the piano quintet form from its earliest inception with Luigi Boccherini to is full blossoming with Robert Schumann. In two concerts, the 2027 Festival musician, Leif Ove Andsnes, meets the Chiaroscuro Quartet, a string quartet using period-specific instruments and specialising in historically-informed performance.  

“When I can give several concerts at the Festival, it’s an opportunity to think more creatively. It can open doors to something exciting and new for me as well,” says the Festival musician. 

There was no particular reason for Luigi Boccherini (1743–1805), a composer born between Haydn and Mozart, to turn to the unfashionable form of the piano quintet in the last years of the 18^th century. But he did, and the works he delivered are elegant musical conversations in which refinement reigns supreme. Boccherini’s works are perfect for the colour and sensitivity of period instruments, where Leif Ove Andsnes will perform on a ‘fortepiano’ – a predecessor of the modern piano. 

“It’s an experiment to perform on different instruments during the Festival, and I’m very much looking forward to it. Boccherini’s piano quintet has been a guilty pleasure of mine for quite some time,” says Andsnes. 

Robert Schumann (1810–1856) followed in Boccherini’s footsteps and took the piano quintet configuration to another level. Fuelled by love for his wife Clara, Schumann wrote perhaps the greatest piano quintet ever – an intense, majestic yet intimate drama for piano and strings that delivers the residual power of a full piano concerto. Andsnes plays the same 1881 piano as for Grieg’s piano concerto in A minor with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. 

Photo: Joss McKinley

Contributors

• Leif Ove Andsnes piano

• Chiaroscuro Quartet:
  Alina Ibragimova violin
  Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux violin
  Emilie Hörnlund viola
  Claire Thirion cello

Works by

• Luigi Boccherini (1743–1805)

• Robert Schumann (1810–1856)

Supported by