KEY POINTS:
Norwegian Leif Ove Andsnes is a peerless pianist, a man who has put his individual stamp on the music of Mozart, Rachmaninov, Janacek and, of course, his countryman Grieg.
His latest disc, Horizons, is a collection of lighter pieces occasioned, he says, because "it's great to see people walk away from a concert with a smile on their face". It sounds like a recipe for disastrous compromise but the result is quite the opposite.
Andsnes' short essay in the booklet makes sentimental associations. He played Ibert's Little White Donkey when he was 7 and, as a teenager, roared through Smetana's At the Sea as a high octane encore - even now you can hear a few gasps as he navigates waves of double octaves.
He pays tribute to those who have gone before. A serene Busoni transcription of Bach is a homage to Dinu Lipatti, two swaying Mompou dances were discovered through Michelangeli.
Australian pianist Eileen Joyce, famous for changing frocks according to the concerto, alerted him to the wafting musical perfumes of Cyril Scott's Lotus Land.
A Shostakovich Polka has just the right knockabout boisterousness; Liszt's Liebestraum sings without false rhetoric or sentiments. Even Debussy's Clair de Lune, in a haze of pedal, gives us a new moon rather than a waning crescent.
The same imaginative pedalling evokes misty fiords in Grieg's Folketone.
Encores these may be, but many are well off the hackneyed path. Prepare to be elated by a George Antheil Toccata, written by an American composer who characterised himself as "The Bad Boy of Music". Andsnes has fun with what sounds like Copland and Prokofiev in a friendly tussle.
Among some virtuoso transcriptions, Walter Gieseking's take on a Richard Strauss Standchen ripples to perfection.
Andsnes himself provides a humble version of a violin and piano piece by Norwegian composer Johan Halvorsen, although he is coy about just who has transformed Charles Trenet's Coin de rue into a bittersweet cafe waltz.
It is three minutes of enchantment, a world-weary lament for loves and times lost. The arranger may be listed as "Mr Nobody" but I have my suspicions ...
* Leif Ove Andsnes, Horizons (EMI 41682)