Klaus Mäkelä
Leif Ove Andsnes Andrew Norman
Ludwig van Beethoven

The Emperor Concerto

When Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) captivated the Viennese concert audience in the 1790s, it was both as a pianist and a composer, as a great performer of his music. In 1811, when his Piano Concerto No. 5 was ready for its premiere, Beethoven had lost so much of his hearing that he could not play himself.

In return, he kept on creating new miracles as a composer. Nobody knows who started naming the Piano Concerto No. 5 the “Emperor Concert,” but the nickname has remained. Beethoven starts the piano concerto in a completely novel way—after some chords from the orchestra, the soloists get to shine on their own in the majestic introduction.

An orchestral piece with three levels

«Might be the best orchestral work that the 21st century has seen thus far,» wrote the music journalist Will Robin about the orchestral piece Play by Andrew Norman (b. 1979), which had its premiere in 2013. Another reviewer called Play «a sprawling, engulfing, furiously unpredictable piece in three symphonic movements,» and the work established Norman as an important voice in American contemporary music.

Play is divided into three movements, Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3, which together last about 45 minutes. The music explores how musicians can perform with and against each other and experiments with a wide range of timbres, effects, and moods, from the explosive opening to far more subdued parts in the second and third movements.