1812: farewell

2027 marks the bicentennial of Ludwig van Beethoven’s death. Over the course of a three-year concert tour, conductor Jan Caeyers and American and star pianist Kit Armstrong will perform Beethoven’s 27 most important concertos in all 27 European countries. In this programme, they take us to the end of Beethoven’s ‘heroic’ period with two masterpieces: the Piano Concerto No no. 5 and Symphony No no. 7. Beethoven no longer wrote the Piano Concerto No no. 5 for himself, but for the generations of pianists who would follow him. It gives the soloist every opportunity to showcase their skills with panache and expression. It is hardly surprising that this work is often regarded as the very first Romantic piano concerto. We find that same grand gesture in Symphony No no. 7, which is best known for its slow, almost hypnotic Allegretto, often described as a procession of praying monks. At the same time, Beethoven employs a musical language that suggests he has reached the limits of the ‘heroic’ style in this symphony. As with all concerts in the Beethoven27 project, Kit Armstrong will begin the evening with a Prelude and Fugue from Bach’s Wohltemperierte Klavier. Bio Kit Armstrong is regarded as one of the leading pianists of our time. Like Beethoven, he is both a piano virtuoso, having performed with the world’s leading orchestras, and a prolific composer, having written more than seventy works by the age of thirty. Programme Johann Sebastian Bach, Prelude and fugue no. 7 from Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, BWV 852 Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano concerto no. 5, op. 73, Emperor Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano sonata no. 26, op. 81a, Les Adieux Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony no. 7 op. 92