Beethoven - Boris Giltburg

Beethoven - Boris Giltburg

8.574153 (Naxos, CD)

DDD
FIRST RELEASE (11 March 2022)

Playing time: 62'40"
Tracks: 6
Booklet pages: 12
℗ 2022 Naxos Rights (Europe) Ltd
© 2022 Naxos Rights (Europe) Ltd
Main country of recording: United Kingdom
Country of manufacture: Germany
Reviewer: Gerald Fenech
Review of Beethoven - Boris Giltburg published on 28 April 2022

Boris Giltburg, piano
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (tracks 1-3)
Vasily Petrenko, piano (tracks 1-3)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827):

Piano Concerto No 5 in E flat, Op 73 'Emperor' (1808-09)
1 Allegro
2 Adagio un poco moto
3 Rondo: Allegro

Piano Concerto No 0 in E flat, WoO 4 (Beethoven's original piano reduction, circa 1784)
4 Allegro moderato
5 Larghetto
6 Rondo: Allegro, ma non troppo

Recorded 11 July 2019 at Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, UK (tracks 1-3) and 13-14 November 2020 at Fazioli Concert Hall, Sacile, Italy (tracks 4-6).

These works share the common key of E flat major but represent two very different stages in the composer's life. The Piano Concerto No 0, WoO 4, written when Beethoven was thirteen years old, is one of his earliest works. With the orchestral score lost, this extant version for piano solo written in Beethoven's hand includes the tutti sections reduced for piano. The radiant 'Emperor' Concerto shows the thirty-eight-year-old Beethoven at the peak of his creative powers, and remains a glorious example of his spirit triumphing over life's adversities. Boris Giltburg with Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra have already recorded Beethoven's First and Second Piano Concertos (8.574151) in an album that has received wide critical acclaim.