Orchestre de chambre de Paris
Kirill Gerstein | direction and piano
The Orchestre de chambre de Paris transports us to Vienna for a date with Salieri, Mozart, and Beethoven.
Salieri Concerto for piano
Mozart Concerto for piano No. 20 K. 466
Salieri 26 Variations on La Folia di Spagna
Beethoven Concerto for piano No. 2 Op. 19
This concert showcases piano concertos by three Viennese composers, as well as the shimmering harp and violin solos of Salieri’s Variations on La Folia di Spagna’ But first, let’s be quite clear, Salieri did not kill Mozart! This murder was the brainchild of Pushkin and was revisited by Miloš Forman in his film Amadeus. In reality, Salieri held high office in the Viennese court. His Piano Concerto and Variations on La Folia di Spagna justify the esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries. He was already the director of the imperial theatre when Mozart (six years his junior) composed his Piano Concerto No. 20 imbued with a powerful tragic spirit. Ten years later, he conducted the premiere of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2, which was still in a Mozartian vein. Beethoven (who may already have been Salieri’s student) performed it as a soloist for the first time in front of a Viennese audience.
Production Orchestre de chambre de Paris