Credits:

Jonathan Biss Beethoven (1770-1827)

Description:

Jonathan Biss, born in 1980, launched the Beethoven/5 project in 2015 with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, commissioning five composers to create new works inspired by each of Beethoven’s five piano concertos and pairing them with both pieces. This third collection includes Beethoven’s Concerto No. 2 and Timo Andres’ “Blind Banister,” performed with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pekka Kuusisto. Andres focused on the cadenza of Beethoven’s Second Concerto, developing the melodic elements (arpeggios and descending forms) as a starting point and constructing new music. In the first movement, the piano plays the main theme, while the orchestra develops it, building up layers of dissonance; in the second movement, the orchestra’s rhythmic descending figures lead the movement, while the piano builds a series of chromatic melodies. The work was a finalist f