Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Piano Concerto

Although they called her the ‘female Beethoven’, the nineteenth-century French composer Louise Farrenc was very much her own woman, and it is only now in the twenty-first century are we rediscovering her ardently romantic, strikingly original music. Tonight, her stirring Overture is the gateway to a concert charged with poetry and emotion. Mark Bebbington joins the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for Beethoven’s fifth and final piano concerto, popularly known as the ‘Emperor’ – a majestic masterpiece, remaining the composer’s best-known and most frequently performed piano concerto. We then voyage on into the raging storms and sunset colours of Brahms’s mighty final symphony, navigated by guest conductor Leslie Suganandarajah, Music Director of the Salzburg Landestheater.

Pre-concert lecture and talk 6.15pm – with Dr Simon Desbruslais - Lecturer in Music, School of Drama, Music and Screen at the University of Hull.