Spanish pianist Javier Perianes returns for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor, composed in 1809 during Napoleon’s occupation of Vienna. The program also includes Albert Schnelzer’s Through the Eye of the Pegasus, commissioned in 2021 for the 40th anniversary of the Alte Oper Frankfurt, and Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 2, written in 1845–46 while recovering from a nervous breakdown. Schumann told Mendelssohn, “Drums and trumpets have been sounding in my mind,” and they can also be heard in the opening fanfare. Eivind Aadland conducts.

Limelight Editor’s Choice

Over the years Spanish pianist Javier Perianes has dazzled Tasmanian audiences with his concerto performances. This time he appears as soloist in Beethoven’s incomparable ‘Emperor’, the most brilliant and symphonic of Beethoven’s five piano concertos.

Robert Schumann was in awe of Beethoven. Schumann’s Symphony No 2 shows traces of that admiration together with his appreciation of Mendelssohn’s music. It also stands as one of the great symphonies of the Romantic Age and remains a deeply moving experience for audiences today. Complementing these two canonic works is Through the Eye of the Pegasus, a powerful new score by contemporary Swedish composer Albert Schnelzer.