Pro Musica to play Beethoven piano concertos
To fully grasp Beethoven’s unbounded genius, musicians look to his concertos.
Santa Fe Pro Musica will explore that brilliance with the performance of three concertos on April 29 and 30. Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott will join the orchestra on Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 19; Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37 and Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58 at Santa Fe’s Lensic Performing Arts Center.
“They all happen in what we call his ‘middle period’ in the first decade of the 19th century,” conductor Thomas O’Connor said.
O’Connor met McDermott through her guest artist appearance in the Opus One piano quartet. The pianist also serves as the artistic director of the Bravo! Vail Valley (Colo.) Music Festival.
“She’s very well-known to New Mexico audiences,” O’Connor said. “She’s been a mainstay at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival for many years.
“I just really enjoyed playing with her. I found her incredibly creative with a wonderful imagination. Before the set was over, we talked about doing a project together. I think we both felt we had a chemistry.”
Already a brilliant pianist, Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1793 to study with Haydn, hoping to take on the mantle of Mozart.
“The quote from his patron in Bonn was, ‘You will receive the spirit of Mozart through the hands of Haydn,’” O’Connor said. “The concertos were vehicles for his piano playing as well as his symphonies. In a way, he kind
of merged the ideas by giving the orchestral parts more importance in the piece instead of being relegated to an accompanist role. The pieces are all very symphonic.”
Beethoven’s hearing began to disintegrate around 1796, O’Connor said.
“He’s going increasingly deaf and isolated and difficult because of that. (But) you can’t find a hint of this in the music. He was able to compartmentalize. There’s no hint of the desperation that he possibly had.”