Christmas Concert

Ludwig van Beethoven’s penultimate piano concerto and his seventh symphony: Concerto Budapest close 2021 at their traditional pre-Christmas concert with this large-scale and noteworthy programme. Mihály Berecz, who at the Liszt Academy Beethoven Day last year commemorating the 250^th anniversary of the birth of the composer performed the Concerto in C minor, and at the orchestra’s most recent season opening concert the Piano Concerto in B-flat major in the company of András Keller and ensemble, this time takes on the solo in the Piano Concerto in G major. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 is a favourite of many, not least because of its famous second movement that has been the inspiration for many artists, thus it features, for instance, in the movies Falling and The King’s Speech. The 1813 premiere of the symphony was received with perhaps the most rapturous acclaim the composer had ever experienced, although it is true that this was largely due to other politically charged works also performed at the concert. The first movement starts with the longest slow introduction of all his symphonies, thus filling the listener with pleasurable anticipation, its second movement is a mournful march followed by a lively Scherzo, and the piece concludes with a sweeping finale.