大象传媒

Live from St. David's Hall in Cardiff

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Beethoven: Piano Concerto no.5 in E-flat major (Emperor)

Paul Lewis (piano)
Elizabeth Atherton (soprano)
Jennifer Johnston (mezzo)
Andrew Kennedy (tenor)
Children's choirs from Brecon Cathedral, Cardiff Metropolitan cathedral, Llandaff Cathedral and St. Davids Cathedral
大象传媒 National Chorus of Wales
Cardiff Polyphonic Choir
David Atherton, conductor

Part of Britten at the 大象传媒. Spring Symphony is one of Britten's largest and most opulent scores. It celebrates the progress of winter into spring, culminating in a glorious May-tide festival in the sun-drenched "Suffolk of Constable and Gainsborugh". English poetry abounds, including settings of Edmund Spenser, Thomas Nashe, Henry Vaughan, Milton and others. Alongside the awakening of innocence there's also a rude earthiness, the orchestra includes a rustic cow-horn, and at the height of the finale, the massed children's voices sing the thirteenth-century song "Sumer is icumen in".

Paul Lewis is internationally recognised as one of the leading pianists of his generation. Since he became one of the very first Radio 3 New Generation Artists, his awards have included
the Royal Philharmonic Society's Instrumentalist of the Year, the South Bank Show Classical Music Award and three Gramophone awards. Paul is particularly associated with the music of Beethoven. His recordings of the complete sonatas were described by Gramophone as "one of the most highly prized recording marathons of recent years" and in 2010 he became the
first pianist to play all five concertos in a single season at the 大象传媒 Proms. The greatest of all the concertos is the Emperor, written in Vienna while Napoleon's guns thundered around. The nickname is unlikely to have been Beethoven's own, more likely it came from an admirer who considered it "an emperor among concertos". Whatever the case, this concerto is undeniably profound and thoughtful, full of nobility and grandeur.