Mein Beethoven – Leben mit dem Meister: the pianist Rudolf Buchbinder chose the title My Beethoven – Life with the Master for his book on the founder of the so-called First Viennese School. The Philharmonie’s audience has an opportunity to establish a similarly close relationship with Beethoven this season, for there are no less than a dozen concerts exploring the oeuvre of this musical genius who has also come to be considered the epitome of a true European.
The centrepiece of this large-scale journey are the performances by the Luxembourg Philharmonic with Rudolf Buchbinder himself on Feb. 22 and 23, 2024, during which all Beethoven’s five piano concerti will be heard. The Austrian pianist may look back on a career spanning decades, but Beethoven’s output is as mesmerizing to him as it was the day he first discovered it. «Exploring Beethoven’s piano works presents new challenges all the time. When I prepare for my performances or study the scores, I keep finding new and surprising things. Even some pieces I’ve played hundreds of times still seem entirely fresh to me» -thus Buchbinder, whose Beethoven «score-card» is filled with one impressive success after another. He has played cycles of the 32 Beethoven sonatas more than 60 times in public; at Vienna’s Musikverein, he played all five piano concerti in one season during the year of Beethoven’s 250th birthday – a first for that venerable institution. «Life with the master», will not, however, be lived in Luxembourg by Rudolf Buchbinder alone. Other performers, equally inspired by Beethoven, will also contribute to this homage. The Berlin Philharmonic opens the season and the Beethoven focus on Sept. 3, 2023 with the cheerful Eighth Symphony, before Hélène Grimaud offers her perspective on the Piano Concerto No. 4 in the spring of 2024. In Early January 2024, the Japanese pianist Mitsuko Uchida adds her interpretation of Beethoven’s three last piano sonatas to the mix.
The master may have departed our world physically – but his spirit obviously has many lives yet to live…
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko
direction
Sonoro Quartet
Sarah Jégou-Sageman, Jeroen De Beer
violon
Séamus Hickey
alto
Léo Guiguen
violoncelle
«Rising stars» – ECHO European Concert Hall Organisation
Nominé par BOZAR Bruxelles
Avec le soutien du Programme Culture de l'Union Européenne
Júlia Pusker
violon
Christia Hudziy
piano
«Rising stars» – ECHO European Concert Hall Organisation
Nominée par Müpa Budapest
Avec le soutien du Programme Culture de l'Union Européenne
Ce concert est enregistré par radio 100,7 et sera diffusé le 25. Février 2024.
Luxembourg Philharmonic
accentus
Laurence Equilbey
direction
Amina Edris
soprano
Agata Schmidt
alto
Production Yaron Lifschitz et Circa
Luxembourg Philharmonic
accentus
Laurence Equilbey
direction
Amina Edris
soprano
Agata Schmidt
alto
Production Yaron Lifschitz et Circa
Mitsuko Uchida piano
Between 1820 and 1822, Ludwig van Beethoven crowned his output of piano sonatas, which he had begun composing in 1795, with three final contributions. The catalogue of 32 sonatas was acclaimed by Hans von Bülow as «the New Testament of piano literature». First and foremost among its exegetes is the Japanese pianist Mitsuko Uchida, winner of the Beethoven Prize in 1969 and one of the pre-eminent experts on Beethoven’s oeuvre in the world. Due to her many years of association with the city of Vienna, she is also able to offer an outstanding stylistic contextualization of Beethoven’s music.
Brentano Quartet
Mark Steinberg, Serena Canin
violon
Misha Amory
alto
Nina Maria Lee
violoncelle
Amatis Trio
Lea Hausmann
Violine
Samuel Shepherd
Violoncello
Mengjie Han
Klavier
Claus-Christian Schuster
Kommentar
Luxembourg Philharmonic
Rudolf Buchbinder
direction, piano
Luxembourg Philharmonic
Rudolf Buchbinder
direction, piano
Minetti Quartett
Maria Ehmer, Anna Knopp
Violine
Milan Milojicic
Viola
Leonhard Roczek
Violoncello
Claus-Christian Schuster
Kommentar
Kreisler Quartet
Haoxing Liang, Silja Geirhardsdóttir
violon
Maya Tal
alto
Niall Brown
violoncelle
Organisé par les Frënn vun de Lëtzebuerger Philharmoniker
Camerata Salzburg
Hélène Grimaud
piano
Evgeny Kissin piano