Search - Chopin, Leif Ove Andsnes :: Leif Ove Andsnes: Piano Sonatas 1-3 / Etudes / Mazurkas

Chopin's First Sonata is an early work that's almost never performed (let alone recorded), and there must be many music lovers fond of the famous Second and Third Sonatas who have wondered what the First sounds like. The problem with performances of such rarities is that, because the music isn't well-known and because major artists don't often play them, the exposure they do receive is often substandard in music that needs passionate advocacy. That's exactly what all three sonatas get at the hands of Leif Ove Andsnes, a superb young Norwegian pianist with the ability to make everything on these two discs sound like a masterpiece, even if, in the case of the First Sonata, the jury's still out. --David Hurwitz