LEIF OVE ANDSNES & ROBIN RHODE - PICTURES REFRAMED

Last Updated - 14th May 2009

TWO ARTISTS CONVERGE ON STAGE

Leif Ove Andsnes embarks on a major project which marks a new departure for the internationally

acclaimed pianist and exclusive EMI Classics artist. Together with South African-born visual artist

Robin Rhode he has created a special programme entitled Pictures Reframed which centres

around Mussorgsky’s epic piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition combining music, film and still

imagery. EMI Classics will release the project on both DVD and CD this Autumn and the première

takes place on 13 November at New York’s Lincoln Center, followed by live performances in the

United States and throughout Europe during November and December. StatoilHydro is the

project’s commissioning sponsor and the Lincoln Center New York is the Commissioning Arts

Institution.

The making of Pictures Reframed . Photographer: Tore Zakariassen / Copyright c. NRK 2009

Leif Ove Andsnes is used to being alone and centre stage in recital but for Pictures Reframed he

will be flanked by an installation of five screens, surrounding the piano and evoking a room within

an exhibition. “There are pieces of music where you feel everything’s there, everything is said”

comments Andsnes. “Pictures at an Exhibition is the opposite, making it a perfect composition to

experiment with as Mussorgsky’s music is incredibly strong but also very open and experimental.

The main thing isn’t the notes themselves, but the composer’s grand vision. For me therefore, the

original version of the work remains almost as a sketch that is open for transformations and

changes. You have this wild narrative of a person walking into an exhibition and he crashes into

the first picture and is faced with various strong images and textures. Later in the cycle he

becomes a part of the picture and it takes on so many aspects. It’s psychologically challenging, I

think.”

Leif Ove Andsnes and Robin Rhode share a mutual fascination with Pictures at an Exhibition.

Rhode had already been experimenting with images based on Mussorgsky’s work and his 2008

digital animation “Promenade” has become the opening sequence for Pictures Reframed. With its

characterful and constantly changing interplay between actor and drawing it fittingly sets the scene for the musical narrative to come. “I have always worked very closely with music” Rhode says

“playing with the notion of rhythm and sound. This new project is not, therefore, so distant from my regular practice although classical music has such an intense history and that will be a difficult

challenge.”

Robin Rhode and Leif Ove Andsnes met for the first time in Munich in September 2007 and ideas

for the programme have been evolving ever since, moving from piano to studio and back to piano.

One of their early meetings took place in a derelict Berlin factory where Rhode started to draw on

the bare wall - a backdrop that is often featured in his work, stemming from his introduction to art

on the streets of Johannesburg. As Rhode embellished the imaginary instrument Andsnes stepped

forward to perform on it, bringing another dimension to Rhode’s playful and often illusionary work.

Recently their adventure has taken them to Bergen where Andsnes performed in a disused

shipyard as water rushed in. How a flooded piano brings their collaboration to a climax will be

revealed this Autumn as music and art converge on stage.

The making of Pictures Reframed . Photographer: Tore Zakariassen / Copyright c. NRK 2009

In addition to Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition the concert performances will include

Schumann’s Kinderszenen and a new commission by Austrian composer Thomas Larcher, with

whom Andsnes and Rhode have both worked in the past.

EMI CLASSICS will release a special luxury collector's edition of Pictures Reframed. It will include

both a DVD and CD packaged together in an exhibition catalogue-style hardback book with a wide

selection of images from the creation and final performance version of Pictures Reframed. In

addition EMI will release a standard CD of a studio recording of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an

Exhibition and other solo piano works by Mussorgsky, coupled with Schumann’s Kinderszenen.

Robin Rhode's latest solo exhibition in the States, entitled Catch Air, opened at the Wexner Center

for the Arts on 2nd April and runs until 26 July. He will also have a large scale solo exhibition of

new work at the Perry Rubenstein Gallery in New York during November 2009, in conjunction with

the world première of Pictures Reframed at the Lincoln Center on 13 November.

Norwegian TV (NRK) will film a preview performance of Pictures Reframed in Norway this Summer

which will be broadcast in the Autumn together with a documentary centred around the making of

Pictures Reframed. The documentary will be syndicated for worldwide broadcast.

StatoilHydro has a long tradition of supporting musical talent and presented Leif Ove Andsnes

with the StatoilHydro Award for musical excellence in 1990. This was the starting point for an ongoing cooperation and, as part of this relationship, StatoilHydro is proud to be the commissioning

sponsor for Pictures Reframed.

TOUR DATES

2009

13 & 14 November Première at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York

16 November Calgary, Jack Singer Concert Hall

18 November University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

20 November Washington, Terrace Theatre, Kennedy Center

22 November Houston, Cullen Hall (matinee concert)

24 November Brussels, Palais des Beaux – Arts

27 November Moscow, Tchaikovsky Hall

29 November Stockholm, Konserthuset

1 December Hamburg, Kampnagel

2 December Munich, Prinzregententheater Theater

4 December London, Queen Elizabeth Hall (2 concerts)

7 December Naples, venue tbc

9 December Berlin, Radial System (2 concerts)

11 December Paris, Theatre des Champ-Elysées

13 December Copenhagen, Koncerthuset

17 December Stavanger, Concert Hall

18 December Oslo, Concert Hall

20 December Cologne, Philharmonie

2010

16 March Beijing

29 March Abu Dhabi

http://www.picturesreframed.com