Watch on demand: Benedetti plays Beethoven

Programme

In Beethoven’s 250th anniversary year, it seems fitting that the Philharmonia’s return to the Royal Festival Hall should feature an all-Beethoven concert. Beethoven’s Second Symphony is an inspiring example of art created in adversity. In despair at his increasing deafness, Beethoven somehow found the inner strength to write some of his most joyful music, bursting with optimism and vitality, and one of the most tender and serene slow movements of his career.

“[Benedetti and Kuusisto] together… found a whole universe in this concerto, in which shadows met sunlight and foreboding met joy”

Rebecca Frank, The Times

Beethoven’s only Violin Concerto, composed a few years later, grabs our attention with five pianissimo kettledrum strokes, and doesn’t let it go. The violin, never showy, sings expressively through the first movement, seems to dream its way through the second, and skips and dances through the ebullient third.

Pekka Kuusisto, already a favourite with Philharmonia players and audiences as a violinist, takes up the baton. He is joined by Nicola Benedetti, an equally engaging performer and one of today’s foremost exponents of Beethoven’s masterpiece.

This concert is introduced by John Suchet, acclaimed broadcaster and much-loved Classic FM presenter.

Nicola Benedetti appears courtesy of  Decca Classics.