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Martha Argerich ©
VFCO / TAKÁCS-NAGY
VFCO – TAKÁCS-NAGY – ARGERICH – REDPATH – NIKOLOVSKA – GLUECKERT – PETRENKO – MÜNCHENER BACH-CHOR / BEETHOVEN
The legendary Martha Argerich brings beauty, control and majesty to a night of Beethoven with his First Piano Concerto, performed alongside Gábor Tákacs-Nagy and the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra. The programme also features the Ninth Symphony with esteemed soloists and the Münchener Bach-Chor.
Programme
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major Op. 15
Interval
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Symphony No. 9 in D minor Op. 125
Distribution
- VERBIER FESTIVAL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
- Gábor Takács-Nagy conductor
- Martha Argerich piano
- Liv Redpath soprano
- Ema Nikolovska mezzo-soprano
- Aj Glueckert tenor
- Mikhail Petrenko bass
- Münchener Bach-Chor choir
Written between 1795 and 1800, Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto displays the audible influence of Mozart, but also Beethoven’s own bold originality such as the new scale of its martial-sounding first movement’s orchestral introduction. The Largo sees clarinet colour play a starring role, before a vivacious rondo finale. His groundbreaking innovations were at their zenith, though, for his ‘Choral’ Ninth Symphony of 1824. At over an hour in length, its size was unprecedented, as was its use of a chorus and vocal soloists. Equally revolutionary was its epic dramatic scale: mysterious, elemental opening bars, from which explode a shattering fanfare. Then, following an energetic Scherzo and Trio, and a sublime Adagio, a return to the very beginning’s darkness – before its banishment by the arrival of the famous jubilant theme, and lyrics by Beethoven and Friedrich Schiller urging us to reject those opening sounds and instead embrace joy.
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