The Risør Festival at the Wigmore Hall | reviews, news & interviews
The Risør Festival at the Wigmore Hall
The Risør Festival at the Wigmore Hall
Pianists Andsnes and Hamelin go ballistic in the Rite of Spring
Sunday, 28 November 2010
Risør, Norway, home to an impressive and not so little music festival
A hell of a lot of talent was on display last night at the Wigmore Hall, where pianist Leif Ove Andsnes's home festival of Risør was stationed for the weekend. The big draw was a performance of The Rite of Spring for two pianos. The work is violent enough in orchestral form but when jammed onto two keyboards it has the potential to degenerate into the most unimaginably demented hand-to-hand combat you'll ever see. Last night's performance - Andsnes facing off against a man that gets pianophiles like me pant-wettingly excited, Marc-André Hamelin - was little short of psychopathic.
A hell of a lot of talent was on display last night at the Wigmore Hall, where pianist Leif Ove Andsnes's home festival of Risør was stationed for the weekend. The big draw was a performance of The Rite of Spring for two pianos. The work is violent enough in orchestral form but when jammed onto two keyboards it has the potential to degenerate into the most unimaginably demented hand-to-hand combat you'll ever see. Last night's performance - Andsnes facing off against a man that gets pianophiles like me pant-wettingly excited, Marc-André Hamelin - was little short of psychopathic.
Efficiency and brutality was the name of this game. And it was mesmerising
Share this article
The future of Arts Journalism
You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!
We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d
And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
more Classical music
Rajakesar, Selaocoe, The Hermes Experiment, Wigmore Hall review - a joyful, fascinating laboratory of noise
Celebrating the avant-garde through different cultures
Classical CDs: Vitamins, kings and magic spells
A neglected ballet score, romantic piano concertos and contemporary British music
Kavakos, Philharmonia, Blomstedt, RFH review - a supreme valediction forbidding mourning
Nonagenarian conductor provides the flow, his players the passion, in Mahler's Ninth
Perianes, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Payare, Barbican review - elegance and drama but not enough bite
Often dynamic Venezuelan conductor misses the darkness of the 'Symphonie fantastique'
La Serenissima, Wigmore Hall review - an Italian menu to savour
Tasty Baroque discoveries, tastefully delivered
Roman Rabinovich, Wigmore Hall review - full tone in four styles
Fascinating Haydn, Debussy and Schumann, odd Beethoven
Wyn, Dwyer, McAteer, RSNO & Choirs, Diakun, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - ebullient but bitty
‘Carmina Burana’ is fun in parts, but Langer’s ‘Dong’ doesn’t flow
Gerhardt, BBC Philharmonic, Chauhan, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - from grief to peace
Anna Clyne, Shostakovich and Richard Strauss tell us about loss, struggle and healing
Bach Brandenburg Concertos, OAE, QEH review - forever young
Zest, dash and fun in rejuvenated favourites
First Person: Alec Frank-Gemmill on reasons for another recording of the Mozart horn concertos
On ignoring the composer's 'Basta, basta!' above the part for the original soloist
Andrej Power, LSO, Mäkelä, Barbican review - singing, shrieking rites of darkness and light
Radical masterpieces by Sibelius and Stravinsky have never sounded more extraordinary
Mailley-Smith, Piccadilly Sinfonietta, St Mary-le-Strand review - music in a resurgent venue
Neglected London church now the home of a vibrant concert series
Add comment