Archived performance
Performance details
Friday November 4 at 7.30pm
Saturday November 5 at 2pm
Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall
Featuring
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Jaime Martín conductor
Jonathan Biss piano
Program
Beethoven Piano Concerto No.5
Brett Dean Piano Concerto - Gneixendorf Music, a Winter’s Journey (Australian premiere of MSO co-commission)
Beethoven Symphony No.5
About this performance
Experience the grandeur of Ludwig van Beethoven at the height of his powers, alongside the Australian premiere of a bold new work by Brett Dean – inspired by Beethoven’s own piano concertos.
- Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.5 was written at the tail end of a personally turbulent but creatively prolific decade for the composer. Renowned concert pianist and curator Jonathan Biss joins the MSO for this lush, cascading work which rewrote the rules of the piano concerto.
- Over five years, Biss co-commissioned five composers to produce their own piano concertos in response to Beethoven’s contributions to the genre. Brett Dean’s atmospheric Gneixendorf Music, a Winter’s Journey was informed by a summer spent in the small Austrian village where Beethoven resided for a few months towards the end of his life.
- Symphony No.5 opens with the most famous ‘da da da duumm!’ in history. But there is more to this piece than its impactful beginning: Beethoven takes a number of simple themes and expertly weaves them into a layered musical texture, all while building a sense of dramatic urgency.
Duration: approx. 2 hours including interval
