Schubert 4 Hands

There is a history of major pianists joining forces to record Schubert’s Fantasia in F minor. Now it is the turn of Bertrand Chamayou and Leif Ove Andsnes. Composed in 1828, the final year of Schubert’s short life, the Fantasia is often described as the greatest of all works for two players at one piano. Chamayou and Andsnes first performed it together in 2016, when Andsnes launched the inaugural Rosendal Chamber Music Festival in western Norway. He had been impressed by a Schubert album that Chamayou had recorded for Erato, and it also happened that two pianists shared a mentor: the Belgian teacher Jacques de Tiège. As Andsnes says: “When we played Fantasia together in Rosendal it felt very natural, and actually very emotional, because it was the last piece in the festival that year.” He points out that, when playing Schubert’s music, “you have a feeling that the truth is just around the corner, but not where you are … It is some of the most sensitive music there is. So one really needs to feel total sympathy, physically and musically, with the other pianist.” Chamayou agrees: “It’s as if we have to become one, because we are both controlling the same instrument ... Leif Ove and I both have this profile of being soloists, but also sharing music with others – either singers or chamber music partners ... It’s very inspiring for us – and very natural for both of us too …” In the Fantasia in F minor, Leif Ove Andsnes plays primo, as he does in the Rondo in A major, D. 951, which also appears on the album. The two pianists change places for the Allegro in A minor, D. 947, Lebensstürme, and the Fugue in E minor, D. 952, as Bertrand Chamayou assumes the role of primo.