Cycle: Beethoven Symphonie for piano I at Palais im Großen Garten Dresden

About the Event

Franz Liszt’s piano arrangements of Ludwig van Beethoven’s complete symphonies are an expression of the profound admiration the pianist and composer felt for Beethoven. These jewels are ideal for the piano festival: despite his veneration of his famous colleague, the lion of the keyboard Liszt also keeps shining through. The first concert in the cycle initiated by Louis Lortie, who dedicates himself to performing all of these transcriptions, begins with the compositional crown: Symphony No. 9. The early version for two pianos of 1851 will be performed, as fourteen years later, attempting a version for one piano, Liszt found the task of rendering the fourth movement and its richness of sound on only one instrument nearly impossible.