Schumann / Grieg: Piano Concertos (Elisabeth Leonskaja)

Sharpened daring in A minor "Innate piano playing with musical sensitivity and a boldness honed by a lifetime of experience," wrote The Guardian in admiration. Elisabeth Leonskaja, a living legend of the present day, is now releasing her third album on Warner Classics under the title Schumann & Grieg: Piano Concertos. On it, she presents the A minor piano concertos by both composers. With this selection, Elisabeth Leonskaja - as heir to the great Russian musicians of the Soviet era - bows to her former teacher and mentor Sviatoslav Richter. The gifted piano virtuoso had already combined the two piano concertos on one album in 1975. After all, the works are musically related: When pianist Clara Schumann interpreted her husband's A minor concerto around 1860, none other than the young Edvard Grieg was sitting in the audience - and was impressed. So much so that Grieg took up Robert Schumann's ideas a few years later and formed his own A minor Piano Concerto from them. While Schumann's concerto is already rich in musical ideas, Grieg's composition captures the light of his homeland. For the first time, the young man found his way to the light, dance-like musical language that would later make him Norway's national composer. Works made for the sensitivity of Elisabeth Leonskaja. The multi-award-winning pianist (Opus Klassik, Prix Caecilia, Diapason d'Or) is accompanied by Michael Sanderling, a specialist in the Romantic era, and his Lucerne Symphony Orchestra.