BEETHOVEN Symphony no. 2
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto no. 4

Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto, full of beauty and majesty, is the perfect way to experience the sensitive and historically informed keyboard playing of Dr Neal Peres Da Costa, whose monograph, Off the Record: Performing Practices in Romantic Piano Playing (Oxford University Press, New York: 2012) has been hailed as “engaging and thought provoking” ...and “a book that no serious pianist should be without.” (Limelight Magazine) It was also honoured by Alex Ross (music critic of The New Yorker and author of The Rest is Noise) as a notable book on his 2012 Apex List.

We present Beethoven’s 4th piano concerto as part of an ongoing AHE cycle exploring Beethoven’s piano concertos in chamber format, a well-loved practice in the Classical and early Romantic periods. This year we are using Beethoven’s own sketches as the basis for a new chamber version of the work.

Neal Peres da Costa will perform on a fortepiano after Conrad Graf (c. 1820), generously made available from the Sydney Conservatoirum of Music and Australian National University historical keyboard collections. We also present an Australian premiere of an 18th century chamber version of Beethoven’s 2nd Symphony, recently discovered in the British Library.