Record Review
15th February 2020
Record of the Week

BBC Music Magazine
April 2020
Concerto Choice

Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano), Freiburger Barockorchester, Pablo Heras-Casado

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73 'Emperor'
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 19

Beethoven's five piano concertos relate, in a sense, part of the composers life: some twenty years during which a young musician from Bonn made several revised versions of the first concerto he wrote (a springboard to Viennese success that ended up being called no.2), before becoming the familiar Emperor of music embodied by the brilliant inspiration of no.5. Two hundred and fifty years after his birth, it is with these two extremes that Kristian Bezuidenhout, Pablo Heras-Casado and the Freiburger Barockorchester have chosen to start an exciting period-instrument trilogy of the concertos that bids fair to be a landmark!

"These are invigorating performances of Beethoven’s first and last concertos, conveying an admirable sense of spontaneity…The entire performance [of No. 2] radiates energy and enjoyment… Bezuidenhout treats the flourishes at the beginning of the Emperor Concerto with a good deal of freedom, lending them an appropriately improvisatory feel…This really is exciting playing, and Bezuidenhout’s virtuosity is impressive." - BBC Music Magazine, April 2020.