New Release: Beethoven Piano Concertos

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3CD + Digital | Available 28 February 2020 | ABC 481 8533

“This was a superb concert. 5 stars.” Artshub

“The idea of pairing Australia’s finest up and coming pianist with our finest contemporary conductor to perform and record a cycle is a great one.”Limelight

ABC Classic is thrilled to announce the release of the complete piano concertos by Beethoven, performed by pianist Jayson Gillham, with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Carter. 

This cycle – the first in twenty years recorded with an Australian pianist, conductor and orchestra – is a major contribution to the ongoing celebrations of Beethoven’s 250th anniversary. 

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Beethoven’s five piano concertos stand at the very pinnacle of classical music. Written between 1795 and 1809, they trace the evolution of Beethoven’s music from the inheritor of the Classical style perfected by Mozart and Haydn, to the inventor of a style that was entirely his own: dramatic, expressive, and revolutionary.

Recorded in five concerts performed over 10 days at Adelaide’s Elder Hall in June 2019, these recordings capture a soloist, conductor and orchestra totally in synch with each other, with a shared vision for the sound world and rhetoric of these mighty works. Reviews of the concert remarked at the “chamber music-like intimacy” between the performers, with a “sense of balance and support… often never heard before within these well-known and much listened to works” (Limelight). 

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Internationally praised for his compelling performances, Australian-British pianist Jayson Gillham is recognised as one of the finest pianists of his generation. His debut album, released in 2016, immediately reached the No. 1 spot in both the Core Classical and Classical Crossover ARIA charts, while his latest album, 2018’s Romantic Bach, was described as “exceptional” and “a supremely satisfying recital from start to finish” by Limelight, and Gramophone said that, “many of these performances must bear comparison with famous recordings of the past by Rachmaninov, Myra Hess and Dinu Lipatti. Gillham comes up trumps every time.”

Nicholas Carter was appointed Principal Conductor ofthe Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in 2016 – the first Australian to bechosen as Principal Conductor of an Australian orchestra in over 30years – and has established a reputation as a conductor of exceptionalversatility, equally at home in the concert hall and opera house, andfluent in a diverse repertoire. Newly appointed as Chief Conductor ofthe Stadttheater Klagenfurt and the Kärntner Sinfonieorchester, NicholasCarter will lead three new productions per season and appear regularlyin the orchestra’s concert series.

With a reputation for vitality and versatility, the much loved Adelaide Symphony Orchestrais South Australia’s largest performing arts organisation, establishedin 1936. For over 80 years, the ASO has been there to corroborate lifeand contribute to South Australia’s identity. Today the ASO plays amajor role in Adelaide’s cultural and economic vibrancy, and enrichesthe community through a diverse program of world-class performances tomore than 100,000 concertgoers each season.

Jayson Gillham piano

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

Nicholas Carter conductor

2020 TOUR DATES

Sunday 1 March

Medici Concerts International Piano Series

QPAC Concert Hall

Sunday 8 March

Goethe Institut, Sydney

Friday 13 March

Saturday 14 March

West Australian Symphony Orchestra

LISZT Piano Concerto No.2

Perth Concert Hall