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marking his Mostly Mozart debut . In the 2016 – 2017 season he debuts with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra with New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert , the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony . He will embark on tours of the U . S . and Europe with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields , with his frequent recital partner Alisa Weilerstein and performing a trio program with Weilerstein and clarinetist Anthony McGill . Other highlights include concerto performances in Japan , Hong Kong and Australia , the complete Beethoven concerto cycle in Marseille and several concerts at London ’ s Wigmore Hall .
A recipient of both the Avery Fisher Career Grant and Lincoln Center ’ s Martin E . Segal Award , Mr . Barnatan has performed with many of the world ’ s foremost orchestras , from San Francisco to Lisbon . He has worked with such conductors as Gustavo Dudamel , Michael Tilson Thomas , Susanna Mälkki , Thomas Søndergård , Edo de Waart and Pinchas Zukerman . Passionate about contemporary music , in recent seasons the pianist has premiered new pieces composed for him by Matthias Pintscher , Sebastian Currier and Avner Dorman .
Mr . Barnatan ’ s critically acclaimed discography includes Avie and Bridge recordings of the Schubert ’ s solo piano works , as well as Darknesse Visible . Last October the pianist released Rachmaninov & Chopin : Cello Sonatas on Decca Classics with Ms . Weilerstein , which earned rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic .
Inon Barnatan is making his BSO debut .
About the concert :
Coriolan Overture , opus 62 Ludwig van Beethoven
Born in Bonn , Germany , December 17 , 1770 ; died in Vienna , Austria , March 26 , 1827
One of Shakespeare ’ s most powerful tragedies is Coriolanus , the story ( drawn from Plutarch ’ s Lives ) of a patrician Roman general destroyed by his overweening pride . After a decisive victory over the
Beethoven
Volscians , Coriolanus refuses the consulship of Rome because it requires him to humble himself before the plebians or commoners . Enraged at his arrogance , the people drive him into exile . But the willful general seeks revenge ; he defects to his former enemies , the Volscians , and leads them against Rome . He battles his way to the very gates of Rome , where his compatriots send delegation after delegation asking him to spare his own city . When the stiff-necked warrior remains obdurate , his wife , mother and son go out to plead with him , and he finally relents . Furious at his betrayal , the Volscians put him to death .
Although Beethoven considered himself a republican and the foe of tyrants , he must have found many points in common with this haughty Roman . He , too , possessed an iron will and , convinced of his genius , would not bend his neck even to princes . Moreover , he had practical reasons for creating an overture on this subject . In 1807 , the composer was currying favor with the Viennese poetplaywright Heinrich von Collin , who was influential at Vienna ’ s Imperial Theatre and who had written his own version of the Coriolanus tragedy five years earlier . Beethoven wanted to secure a contract with the Theatre to write an opera each year for production there ; he also hoped Collin would collaborate as his librettist . Though neither of these goals was realized , one of Beethoven ’ s greatest overtures , the tensely dramatic Coriolan , was born . It introduced Collin ’ s play at a performance on April 24 , 1807 .
A taut sonata form , the Coriolan Overture musically describes the full tragedy in just eight minutes . It is cast in a significant
key for Beethoven , C minor , which Michael Steinberg calls his “ clenched-fist ” key ; it also colored other heroic works , notably his Fifth Symphony . Three massive Cs exploding into violent chords open the piece ; they are separated by dramatic pauses , which will be an important element throughout . Here is a titanic yet concise portrait of a hero ruled by will and rage . Coriolanus ’ restless temperament is further delineated by the fitful , evermodulating principal theme that follows . Its opposite is the lovely , flowing second theme , representing the feminine pleas of the warrior ’ s wife and mother . When the massive Cs return for the third and final time , Beethoven foretells the hero ’ s fate : Coriolanus ’ music suddenly disintegrates into the silence of death , ending with three almost inaudible plucked Cs .
Instrumentation : Two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , two horns , two trumpets , timpani and strings .
Piano Concerto No . 3 in C minor
Ludwig van Beethoven
With his Third Concerto , and his only one in the minor mode , Beethoven decisively declared his independence as a composer . In Donald Francis Tovey ’ s words , “ It is one of the works in which we most clearly see the style of his first period preparing to develop into that of his second ,” the “ heroic ” period that would soon produce its namesake , the “ Eroica ” Symphony .
Musicologists are not certain when this concerto was actually composed . The year 1800 is often cited , but the work was not premiered until April 1803 , in a concert at Vienna ’ s Theater an der Wien that also included Beethoven ’ s First and Second Symphonies . So he may have spent those intervening years refining this work in the painstaking fashion characteristic of much of his composing . And the revisions must have continued right up to the premiere . After a marathon all-day rehearsal of this ambitious program , the composer ’ s friend Ignaz von Seyfried remembered the concerto ’ s first performance as a helter-skelter
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