On the face of it, the latest of Leif Ove Andsnes’s yearly chamber-music bonanzas on the postcard-perfect Hardangerfjord of his native Norway may strike less inviting a note than the three previous editions dedicated to Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms. The theme this time is “Contrasts,” a term so catchall as barely to qualify as a theme at all. In truth, Andsnes always curates for contrast. Each of his “Great Man” festivals had an intuitively chosen (rather than, say, didactic) countertheme to vary and enrich the programming in impossible to predict ways. This year’s principal focus is on Hungarian music. Liszt, Bartók, Kodály, Ligeti. Already the air is humming with crosstalk. The yang to this yin (or vice versa) is J. S. Bach, principally represented, if you please, by the St. John Passion, by no stretch of the imagination a chamber work. And as always, Andsnes gives airtime to Norwegian specialties and other miscellanea. The daily concert schedule begins mid-morning and continues well into the short summer nights, with events in the modern, purpose-built music shed, the medieval Kvinnherad Church, the open-air Stone Park, and even in the stately 17th-century “Baronie,” where the idea of the festival was first conceived. As the festival grew, recitals in the salon known as the Red Room were suspended for several seasons—too many guests had to be turned away. This year, a program in the Red Room will be played in three back-to-back performances so all may attend. As always, Andsnes has invited a cohort of top-flight colleagues. Excursions on foot into the surrounding landscape are highly recommended. —Matthew Gurewitsch