Freddy Kempf performs Beethoven

The endurance of Beethoven’s orchestral legacy is irrefutable: ‘You will never know how the likes of us feel when we hear the march of a giant like Beethoven behind us,' wrote Brahms in a letter to conductor Hermann Levi. Indeed, Beethoven’s pioneering of the symphonic form startled contemporary critics but inspired composers throughout the nineteenth-century and beyond. Two landmark symphonies feature in this programme and pianist Freddy Kempf makes an anticipated return to perform Beethoven’s first published concerto for the piano. Premiered in 1798, it was dedicated to Beethoven’s pupil Countess Anna Keglevics.