Beethoven the Master

Saturday, 08 Novemer 2025 - 7:30pm

The Great Hall . . .

Liverpool Hope University

Creative Campus

17 Shaw Street

Liverpool

L6 1HP

Wonder at his 5th Piano Concerto and the 7th Symphony. Featuring the wonderful Lauryna Sableviciute.

More than any other musician, Beethoven (1770 - 1827) changed the course of music. After his death, nothing was the same again. He inhibited later composers who felt that they couldn’t compete with his intellectual rigour and outstanding imagination. Unlike previous composers, none of his works sounds like another. Even his first three sonatas, published when he was thirteen, are noticeably individual.

Just as he was consolidating his reputation, the signs of deafness began to plague him: the most cruel fate for a musician. By the time he wrote the Emperor Concerto and his seventh symphony he was unable to hear with any clarity. Although the greatest pianist of his time, he did not play this last of his concertos because he could not hear the orchestra or keep in time with them. Yet his spirit remained undaunted and he went on to write what many consider to be the finest of all symphonies, sonatas and string quartets.

Piano Concerto no. 5 in Eb, opus 73.

Is this the greatest concerto of them all? Quite possibly. Certainly it's written on a very grand scale from the majestic opening to the piano's final flourish. Between the two comes a slow movement of exquisite lyricism which leads, without a break - and this was an innovation - into the lively finale. The nickname Emperor was not given by the composer but does suit the piece, written at the height of his powers, in 1809.

Symphony no. 7 in A, opus 92.

This occupied Beethoven during 1811-12 and has been called, by some authorities, his Dance Symphony. Each listener can decide for themselves as the four movements progress, but it particularly applies to the toe-tapping last movement. As always, with this composer, each of his pieces is unique. He set himself a different challenge in each one. Although the concerto and symphony were written within a four year period they sound quite different from each other while still having all the musical fingerprints of the composer.

Born in 1770, he died in 1827 which means his bi-centenary arrives in in two years' time. Look out for our series of concerts celebrating this important event.