Program Highlight

Emanuel Ax plays Beethoven's Emperor with the Pittsburgh Symphony, January 2022

Classical 91.5 WXXO-FM

Published December 17, 2021 at 2:04 PM EST

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/classical-features/beethoven-emperor-concerto/

Although Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 has been attributed to one Johann Baptist Cramer, a pianist, composer and publisher based in London who was friendly with Beethoven and probably knew the value of good marketing, the word ‘Emperor’ carries resonances that were so far from the composer’s ideals that its attachment to arguably his finest concerto is almost laughable. We'll hear it on Jan 26th at 8pm.

1/5 Rigel: Symphonie No. 4 Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 Haydn: Symphony No. 98 (Jan Lisiecki, p; Bernard Labadie, cond)

1/12 Mozart: Flute Concerto No. 1 Schubert: Symphony No. 9, The Great (Lorna McGhee, f; Manfred Honeck, cond)

1/19 Enescu: Rumanian Rhapsody No. 1 Dvorak: Violin Concerto (Augustine Hadelich, v; Cristian Macelaru, cond)

1/26 Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor Berlioz: Te Deum (Emanuel Ax, p; Paul Appleby, t; Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh; Matthew Mehaffey, dir; Manfred Honeck, cond)