Review: Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Leeds Town Hall, Saturday, March 18, 2017

TWO great Mozart piano concertos formed the centrepiece of this wonderful concert given by Leif Ove Andsnes with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. A first-half pairing of Haydn's Symphony No 95 in C minor with Mozart's Piano Concerto No 20 in D minor, K466, created a thoughtful atmosphere - although both works end with celebratory outbursts in the major key.

Terje Tonnesen, the Orchestra's artistic director since 1977 directed the Haydn from the Leader's desk. Muscular sounding strings, bittersweet woodwind and the rawness of natural trumpets all added an extra dimension to the subtle mood changes in this, the shortest of Haydn's twelve "London" symphonies.

The piano was moved centre stage with the keyboard facing the audience for Leif Ove Andsnes to direct the concertos. The dark sonorities of Mozart's agitated D minor Concerto were underpinned by the richness of the cellos and basses. Andsnes' magisterial command and his shaping of orchestral detail were in perfect accord. He never dominates, except of course in the solo cadenzas - Beethoven's in the first movement, Hummel's in the finale.

Andsnes has been playing this concerto for over thirty years, but gave his first public performance of No 22 in E flat, K482, just two weeks ago. No one would have guessed as much. The musicality oozed from his every fibre - whether applying the most delicate brushstrokes of colour to a phrase, or standing up to conduct. The extraordinary grandeur of the finale of K482 in which its joyful rondo is interrupted by a heavenly woodwind serenade is one of Mozart's most sublime creations. The NCO's elegant legato phrasing made the music sound like one of those matchless arias from Don Giovanni or the Marriage of Figaro.

Terje Tonnesen directed the twenty two strings of the NCO in Grieg's Holberg Suite. This party piece was played entirely from memory with the violins and violas standing up. The musicians cast inhibition aside and actually danced the hopping steps of the final movement Rigaudon - a lively French Baroque dance. Ensemble and intonation were as perfect as we're likely to hear. The NCO's joyful music making spread like a contagion among the delighted audience.

by Geoffrey Mogridge