Lorenzo Viotti returns to Amsterdam - not as a chef, but as a guest with impact. Together with top pianist Kirill Gerstein, he will consider a masterpiece unlike any other: Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto, nicknamed the "Emperor" Concerto. The program also includes Brahms' monumental First Symphony, and the evening opens with a Dutch premiere of Samy Moussa's Elysium. Classical music, but with the energy of today.
Anyone who thinks classical music is stuffy has yet to see Lorenzo Viotti on stage. In recent years, the charismatic conductor has proven himself an audience favorite with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. Now he returns temporarily for a program brimming with musical eloquence.
The evening opens with Elysium by Canadian-German composer Samy Moussa - a meditative yet powerful work, which has not been performed live in the Netherlands before. Next, Kirill Gerstein takes his place behind the grand piano for Beethoven's iconic Piano Concerto No. 5. Not for nothing does this work bear the nickname "Emperor": grand in structure, majestic in tone and brilliantly performed by a pianist known for his intellectual as well as emotional depth.
"If music is a mirror of the soul, Viotti and Gerstein here let us look straight into its heart."
After intermission, it is Brahms' turn, with his First Symphony. A work that contains as much struggle as beauty, and that Brahms dared to complete only after years of wrestling with Beethoven's shadow. That is precisely what makes the combination of these two composers so powerful. In both Beethoven's concerto and Brahms' symphony, you can hear the ambition to push boundaries, to make orchestral music not just sound, but live.