Soloist: Pollini, Maurizio

Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor: Bohm, Karl

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Composer: Beethoven, Ludwig van

Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37

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Venue: Grosser Musikvereinssaal, Vienna

Date of Concert: 1977

Playing Time: 00:36:19

Television Director: Nupen, Christopher

Catalogue Number: A04000337

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The key of C minor was Beethoven's "Storm and Stress" key, that of some of his most dramatic and heroic works, such as the Fifth Symphony and the Pathetique Sonata. Composed around 1800, the Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 displays an emotional intensity that marks it as one of the first of Beethoven's mature and individual major works. As if to show that the keyboard was too narrow for his ideas, Beethoven rewrote some of the piano part in 1804 to incorporate the extra notes that had been added to the keyboard in the first years of the century. The simple but assertive opening theme of the first movement is treated with bold imaginativeness. The Largo sets the stage for a true dialogue between the piano and the orchestra, which culminates in the almost aggressive earnestness of the Rondo.

Maurizio Pollini is one of the most distinguished pianists of our time, who has performed with the world's leading orchestras. A committed advocate of contemporary music, Pollini frequently performs works by Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Nono, Boulez and Stockhausen. However, he has also given complete cycles of the Beethoven sonatas in Berlin, Milan, New York, Munich and other cities. On the occasion of a performance of the Beethoven concertos at New York's Carnegie Hall, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra presented him with its "golden ring", a rare distinction awarded to only few musicians.