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The Philadelphia Orchestra

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Nathalie Stutzmann

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Haochen Zhang

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All Beethoven

Philadelphia

United States

Verizon Hall

All Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, op. 73 ("Emperor Concerto") Beethoven (+1 More)

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Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major Op. 73

Symphony No. 7

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The glory of Beethoven’s genius illuminates these concerts. He wrote his Fifth Piano Concerto in 1809, as Napoleon’s army advanced upon Vienna. Trouble surrounded the composer: Increasingly deaf, he had begun to curtail his public performances, and with his own house hemmed in by the French forces who surrounded the city, he was forced into hiding in his brother’s cellar. Still, the work that emerged was one of his noblest, from its bold opening movement through the hushed and haunting Adagio to the dazzling finale. Despite the fact that Napoleon’s boot-prints are all over the history of this work, its “Emperor” moniker was applied years after its premiere, more in reference to the grandeur of the music than to any specific sovereign.

Grand and dramatic, Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto won famous fans early: Felix Mendelssohn performed the English premiere in 1829 and Franz Liszt numbered it among his favorites. It’s performed here by internationally acclaimed pianist Haochen Zhang, who was awarded the Gold Medal in the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Zhang recorded all of Beethoven’s piano concertos with Principal Guest Conductor Nathalie Stutzmann and the Orchestra in 2022.

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 is a joyous call to dance—high-spirited, whirling, and lyrical. Its light-heartedness may have been influenced by a small project Beethoven had taken on around this time, arranging Scottish, Irish, and Welsh folksongs for an Edinburgh music publisher. One of those songs, “Save me from the grave and wise,” counsels the listener: “On! my careless laughing heart, O dearest Fancy let me find thee; Let me but from sorrow part, And leave this moping world behind me.” No better respite from a moping world than Beethoven’s Seventh!

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