5. Classical Music on Sunday

Together with our »Artist in Residence« Alexander Krichel, we will be performing one of the greatest piano works of all time: Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major. It alternates between triumphant and gentle, intimate, quasi-chamber music moments. The way Beethoven allows the soloist and orchestra to interact, how he lets one lead and then the other, how the piano and orchestra merge and how he creates dream worlds with distant keys is the work of a genius. No wonder that Beethoven’s 5th piano concerto was a revelation for Robert Schumann, Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff.

In 1806/07, about two or three years before this piano concerto, Carl Maria von Weber composed his Symphony No. 1. It is interesting to note that this early work did not pay homage to the Beethoven cult that was just emerging at the time. He preferred to follow Mozart and, above all, Haydn, and at the age of just 20 composed a wonderfully fresh symphony full of poetry, wit and vitality, which he clothed in brilliant instrumentation.

Anna Skryleva will conduct the concert. She will remain General Music Director of the Magdeburg Theatre Orchestra until 2025. In 2024, she and her orchestra were awarded the OPUS KLASSIK prize for the best world first recording of the year. An internationally sought-after opera and concert conductor, Anna Skryleva has conducted the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, the Hamburg State Opera, the Leipzig Opera and the Dallas Opera, among others.