Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 | Fabian Müller, Paavo Järvi & Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich

It is Beethoven's only piano concerto in a minor key, the “sad” C minor. And yet the ending is a joyful. You are listening to a live recording of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37, played by the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under its chief conductor Paavo Järvi. The solo part on the piano is performed by the German pianist Fabian Müller. The concert took place on September 2, 2023 at Bonn Opera House as part of the Beethovenfest Bonn.

00:00 Coming on stage
00:31 I. Allegro con brio
18:11 II. Largo
27:17 III. Rondo. Allegro

TONHALLE ORCHESTRA ZÜRICH
Paavo Järvi | CONDUCTOR
Fabian Müller | PIANO

At the premiere on April 5, 1803, Beethoven (1770-1827) himself sat at the piano. He had asked his friend Ignaz Xaver von Seyfried to turn over the sheet music during the performance. Unlike the orchestral parts, however, he had not yet put the solo part down on paper. Apart from a few marks that were illegible to his friend and some notations on how the piece was to progress, the sheets are said to have been completely blank. Whether Beethoven was in a hurry - as was often the case - and thus improvised the performance, or whether he played from memory and was having a laugh with his friend, is not known for certain.

Of Beethoven's five piano concertos, only the third is in a minor key. To be more precise, it is in C minor, inspired by Mozart's C minor Concerto K. 491. And yet Beethoven liked to experiment with classical forms and musical motifs. This is why this third piano concerto is also described as a symphonic solo concerto. This concerto form developed in the course of the 19th century and is characterized by the close interweaving of the motivic and thematic development of the orchestral parts and the solo piano.

In the final movement, the Rondo Allegro, Beethoven switches from the rather somber and sad key of C minor to E-flat major, bringing the concerto to a joyful and virtuosic conclusion. For the German pianist Fabian Müller, it is the work of a young man who had a lot of dark, but also a lot of joyful energy. Müller particularly loves the fact that the piece ends on such a happy and joyful note.

Fabian Müller is an award-winning pianist who has played with numerous orchestras. Müller is also artistic director of the chamber music series “Bonner Zwischentöne,” which he founded. He’s also involved in the field of music education. In 2014, his role in the education project of the Ruhr Piano Festival was awarded the Junge Ohren Prize, and in 2016 he received an Echo Klassik award. Like Beethoven, Müller was born in Bonn, albeit 220 years later, in 1990. The Beethovenfest Bonn is a festival that's very close to his heart.

Grammy Award-winning Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi is widely recognized as one of today’s most eminent conductors and has worked closely with the world's finest orchestras. He serves as chief conductor of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, the long-standing artistic director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen since 2004, and as both the founder and artistic director of the Estonian Festival Orchestra. From the start of the 2022/23 season, he was also Honorary Conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra.

Founded in 1868, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich is one of Switzerland’s leading ensembles. Around 100 musicians perform about 50 different programs in over 100 concerts each season. Guest performances have taken the orchestra to cities in over 30 countries. Recently, the orchestra received the European Culture Prize 2022 together with Paavo Järvi.

© 2024 Deutsche Welle

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