St Petersburg, Concert Hall

Beethoven


The programme includes:
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Concerto No 4 in G Major, Op. 58
Symphony No 9 in D Minor, Op. 125

Soloists:
Yefim Bronfman (piano)

Irina Vasilieva (soprano), Yekaterina Sergeyeva (mezzo-soprano), Ilya Bannik (bass), Dmitry Voropaev (tenor)

The Mariinsky Orchestra and Chorus
Principal Chorus Master: Andrei Petrenko
Conductor: Valery Gergiev

The St Petersburg Chamber Choir
Artistic Director and Principal Conductor: Nikolai Kornev

Not a single one of Ludwig van Beethoven’s (1770–1827) “academies” (as composers’ recitals were known in the 18th-19th centuries) took place without performances of piano concerti and including him as a pianist and improviser, adored and fawned upon by the public. The greatest academy, lasting three hours, on 22 December 1808 included, in addition to the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, highlights from his Mass in C Major, the Fourth Piano Concerto in G Major and, as indicated by the playbill, an “Improvisation for piano with subsequent gradual inclusion of the entire orchestra and joining of a chorus in the finale”.
In preparing for the “academy”, Beethoven had not planned to perform the new Fourth Concerto himself (his diminishing hearing was a source of disappointing perfidy to the musician while playing in an ensemble). But the pianists Beethoven turned to could not learn the complex solo part in the few days remaining before the premiere, and the composer was compelled to present his new work to the public himself. At Beethoven’s very last appearance as a pianist, one critic noted the “surprising perfection and utmost virtuosity … he truly sang on the instrument with a sensation of deepest melancholy” (in particular, of course, this remark was aimed at the Andante – in terms of depth an incredibly beautiful dramatic dialogue between the soloist and the strings). The Fourth Concerto, and after it the Fantasia too, breaking with indisputable tradition opened not with an orchestral tutti, but rather with the soloist. This “quiet” beginning in itself predetermined the essential mood of the Fourth Concerto – a unique “lyrical intermezzo” between the bleak, courageous Third and the heroic Fifth Concerti. The Fourth Concerto, performed by the composer, was never again heard during Beethoven’s lifetime (one of those highly striking examples of the general deafness of the public and the musicians!). It was only a quarter of a century later that the Concerto was once again “discovered” by Felix Mendelssohn, a hunter of musical treasures, who performed it in 1832 in Paris.
Iosif Raiskin
Age category 6+

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