The Hallé: Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto

Weber Overture: Der Freischütz  (10′)
Beethoven Piano Concerto No.4  (35′)
Brahms Symphony No.3 (37′)

In recent years Cristian Macelaru has become very much a favourite with Hallé audiences. In these concerts he forms a dream team with the great pianist Lars Vogt. Beethoven’s great concerto is a work of lyricism and humour with a slow movement that has been likened to Orpheus taming the furies! Hans Richter compared Brahms’s Third Symphony to Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ and it certainly has heroic qualities, its moody third movement being a particular highlight that has made its mark in film as well as the concert hall. In his short life, Weber left us a dazzling legacy of operatic and orchestral works; Der Freischütz perhaps the most popular of them all, and certainly the most eloquent, as the Overture reveals.