Andsnes & Chamayou
at the
Oslo Opera House

Schubert’s final work  

‘Four hands, one voice, and that voice was Schubert’s,’ wrote the Edinburgh Music Review after Andsnes and Chamayou performed Schubert's repertoire for piano four hands at the Edinburgh Festival in autumn 2024.  

Franz Schubert did not live a long life. He contracted syphilis at the age of 25 and lay on his deathbed aged just 31, in 1828. Yet he produced multiple works at a rapid pace, many of which were written for piano four hands.  

Star pianists Andsnes and Chamayou have toured Europe in recent years with a selection of pieces from Schubert’s repertoire, including the dramatic piece Fantasie in F minor. 

Living games with Kurtág 

Andsnes and Chamayou playfully alternate between past and present during the evening, as they also perform György Kurtág's Játékok. The title translates to Games, and it is a diverse work written for both piano four hands and piano six hands, as well as other instruments.  

The living Hungarian composer knows how to create musical works that remain living, for throughout his career, Kurtág has constantly added new pieces to Játékok, a work that is never complete. He describes the ‘games’ as daring and joyful, imbued with tributes to the great composers of the past.  

Kurtág and his wife Márta toured the four-hand works for many years before her death in 2019. Andsnes and Chamayou bring a selection of these works, as well as a number of solo pieces, to the Main Stage.  

Programme

Franz Schubert Rondo in A Major, D. 951 

György Kurtág Solo pieces from Játékok:  
 
- Hommage à Farkas Ferenc 3 (Evocation of Petrushka) 
- Les Adieux in Janáčeks Manier 
- Sirens of the Deluge - Waiting for Noah 
- An Apocryphal Hymn (In the Style of Alfred Schnittke) 
- Hommage à Farkas Ferenc 2 (Scraps of a Colinda Melody - Faintly Recollected)  
 

Pieces for four hands:  
- Furious Chorale 
- Bells (Hommage à Stravinsky) 
- Hommage à Halmágyi Mihály  

Franz Schubert Allegro i a-moll, D947 Lebensstrüme 

 
Intermission  
 
Franz Schubert Fuge in E Minor, D. 952  

György Kurtág Solo pieces from Játékok: 
- Aus der Ferne (Alfred Schlee Zum 80. Geburtstag) 
- The Little Squall 
- Hommage à Schubert 
- Hommage tardif à Karskaya 
- Choral (for Benjamin Rajeczky’s 80th birthday)  
 
Pieces for four hands:
- Study to “Hölderlin” (Position Exercise) 
- Kyrie 
- Hommage à Soproni (in memoriam matris carissimae)  

Franz Schubert Fantasie in F Minor, D. 940