Leif Ove Andsnes, one of today’s most charismatic and acclaimed pianists, is to join Sony Classical. He moves from EMI.

Andsnes is a five-time Gramophone Award winner, earning the accolades for his recordings of concertos by Grieg, Schumann, Haydn and Rachmaninov, Grieg’s Lyric Pieces, and the Brahms and Schumann piano quintets.

His new label will be hoping he might add to this success with their first project together – a Beethoven piano concerto cycle with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. The works will be recorded over three years, beginning next year with Piano Concertos Nos 1 and 3, followed by Concertos Nos 2 and 4 in 2013 and the Fifth Piano Concerto and Choral Fantasy in 2014.

“I feel privileged to be joining the Sony Classical roster and look forward to embarking on this personal journey to perform and record Beethoven’s complete piano concertos together with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra,” said Andsnes. “Beethoven’s music is for me both the most human and deeply spiritual music there is, and I can’t wait to see where the next years will lead me in working on these magnificent pieces. I would like to thank both the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Sony Classical for sharing such equal energy and enthusiasm for our common Beethoven journey.”

Andsnes is one of the most high profile of a series of recent Sony signings, which have also included pianists Lang Lang and Khatia Buniatishvili, tenor Vittorio Grigolo, bass Erwin Schrott, violinist Ray Chen, soprano Nino Machaidze and conductor Kristjan Järvi.