Paul Lewis Performs Beethoven's Emperor

The 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn was awestruck by the striking Fingal’s Cave in the Scottish Hebrides. His musical themes allow the audience to feel the same anticipation the composer felt upon seeing the cave – the enormity and overwhelming natural beauty of the landscape, the crashing of the sea, the light on the water.

Though Beethoven conceived his Fifth Piano Concerto as Vienna was besieged by Napoleon’s army, the piece contains none of the misery that surrounded the composer in real time. This final piano concerto would be his most triumphant; a work radiating confidence and heroic grandeur, while also creating an atmosphere of inner serenity.

This concert requires the skill of a storyteller – a role Chief Conductor Jaime Martín plays so well. With Jaime as your guide and Paul Lewis at the piano, himself a lauded Beethoven interpreter, this is the chance to experience a sense of uplifting hope and joyous possibility.

Jaime brings to Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances the same infectious exuberance that animates the music itself. Rooted in Czech spirit and style, the Dances are a celebration of community and culture, something the MSO does best.