Beethoven’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 with Mitsuko Uchida and Simon Rattle

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto in B flat major is in fact chronologically No. 1, and Beethoven’s first major orchestral work. The style is still restrained, and is influenced by Haydn and Mozart. It is therefore all the more overwhelming when the bombshell hits, so to speak: when daring harmonic turns and unexpected energetic gestures reveal the composer’s creativity. The development of this style can be found in the Third Piano Concerto. Even the key of C minor points to the “heroic” Beethoven as we know him from pieces such as his Fifth Symphony.

The second work on the programme was a premiere: Sibelius’s Third Symphony, which had never before been performed by the Philharmoniker. The piece marks a turning point in the composer’s creative activity. It has indeed the unmistakably Nordic timbre typical of Sibelius. However, in contrast to its sumptuous late-Romantic predecessors, this Symphony comes across as purified and concentrated: modernism is entering the composer’s field of view.

Berliner Philharmoniker

Sir Simon Rattle

Mitsuko Uchida