December 19, 2022 | Thaikovsky Concert Hall
Subscription Series No. 19: “National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia”
Soloist – Alexander Kliuchko, piano
Conductor – Vladimir Spivakov
Beethoven. Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra in C major, Op. 15
Beethoven. Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92

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On December 19, Vladimir Spivakov and the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia will offer to music lovers a monographic program of Beethoven's works. It will be a remembering of the composer's birthday on December 16, 1770. For Vladimir Spivakov and his collective the great German master is one of the most treasured authors whose works have been regularly performed by the NPR since its first season, while in 2020 Vladimir Spivakov dedicated a special concert cycle to Beethoven's 250^th anniversary.

Part 1 will feature the First Piano Concerto – an early opus by the young virtuoso pianist just having arrived to conquer Vienna. In his score the 25-year-old composer evolved boldly and confidently the traditions by Haydn and Mozart whose Concertos he had played with his own cadenzas, thus gaining the reputation of a brilliant improviser. For its time the Concerto in C major was most innovative in length and complicated technical approach.

The night will end with the Seventh Symphony by the Viennese classic, one of his most expressive opuses. It is worth noting that instead of the traditional slow movement the author chose an original Allegretto which calls forth associations with a mass manifestation. Beethoven himself claimed the Seventh his best symphony (the opinion shared later by Tchaikovsky), whereas one of the critics of those times wrote that of all Symphonies by Beethoven this one was “the clearest in execution and richest in melodies”. Richard Wagner defined the Seventh Symphony as “apotheosis of dance”.

The solo part in the Piano Concerto will be played by Alexander Kliuchko, an alumnus of the Moscow Conservatory, awardee of international competitions in Russia, Kazakhstan, France, Spain and the USA and the winner of the First Edition of the S.V. Rachmaninoff International Competition for pianists, composers and conductors in Moscow (2022).