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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 premiere 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. 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. Its 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. 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 also release a special luxury collector's edition of Pictures Reframed to 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. 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.