BBC Philharmonic - Stairway to Heaven

Anja Bihlmaier conductor
Steven Osborne piano

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, ‘Emperor’
Bruckner Symphony No. 7 in E major

Beethoven wrote his Fifth Piano Concerto, ‘Emperor’ to the accompaniment of gunfire, as Napoleon and his troops were storming Vienna. You can hear the battle between soloist and orchestra – heroic stuff indeed and audiences had never heard anything like it in terms of scope and grandeur. But then, Beethoven liked shock tactics; they splatter his music. Later we move from the shocking to the sublime, as Beethoven’s slow movement is utterly timeless. Bruckner stops all the clocks with a sound world that’s mindful and mysterious. The skies open on the Seventh Symphony as shimmering strings transport us up the celestial ladders of Bruckner’s world.