On May 4, as part of the 16th Moscow Easter Festival programme, the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre presents an evening of symphony music with the Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho soloing in Beethoven’s Concerto No. 3. Seong-Jin Cho’s unique style is distinguished by comprehensive musical intuition and the highest level of mastery. His manner is characterized by an incredible inherent nobility: the musician’s playing is both subtle and precise, astounds by its depth and power and, at the same time, by his ability “to sing” on the piano. At his young age, Seong-Jin Cho has an amazing feeling and understanding of music, which makes him interesting in a most wide-ranging repertoire.
Beethoven earned first public recognition not as a composer, but as a virtuoso concert musician. At the age of seventeen, during his brief visit to Vienna, he played for Mozart and won his wholehearted approval. When he finally settled permanently in the Austrian capital, Beethoven was showered with invitations from philanthropic aristocrats to participate in academies - a composer’s solo concerts with an obligatory performance of a new concerto and improvisation on given themes. Thus emerged Beethoven’s concerti: the piano concerti were composed by him for his own academies, the violin concerti for renowned virtuoso Franz Clement Beethoven enriched the concerto genre with symphonic features and underlined the leading role played by the soloist, in each and every case rethinking his role and interaction with the orchestra. Being a unique “portrait” of Beethoven at a specific stage in his life, the concerti provide us with a wonderful opportunity to follow the evolution of the composer’s creative manner. While in the First, and especially, in the Second Concerto, the genetic ties with similar works by Mozart and Haydn are still traceable, the Third Concerto demonstrates a decisive break. Here, the juxtaposition of the soloist with the orchestra takes on a new, dramatic interpretation and serves as an expression of the content, at variance with itself. According to Alfred Cortot, “the piano grows before the orchestra like a rival in a heroic battle; the sound it has to hand is just as imperious, its development just as powerful, as Beethoven’s interpretation of the orchestral mass.” Thus, Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto opened a new era in the history of this genre, which was quite in line with the technological progress: it was the time of increasing popularity of a new, improved design piano with a vibrant, mellow sounding, similar to the modern piano we have now.
Nadezhda Koulygina
