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London Symphony Orchestra/Rattle & Krystian Zimerman

Beethoven Piano Concerto 3

Pianist Krystian Zimerman

The phenomenal Krystian Zimerman performs Beethoven’s darkest piano concerto, and Sir Simon Rattle conducts music by Paul Hindemith at his most irreverent, and his most inspiring.

Beethoven took Mozart as an inspiration for his Third Piano Concerto, and some music is simply better than it can ever be played. But if anyone can do it justice, it’s Krystian Zimerman. As The Guardian puts it, ‘he and Rattle have forged a very special musical partnership’; it’s fair to expect something rather special before Sir Simon turns to three Hindemith rarities.

Any true genius is multifaceted, and tonight we’ll hear Hindemith the iconoclast – the anarchic musical prankster who blew raspberries at the conservative establishment in Weimar Germany. But he was dancing on a volcano: and it was his great hymn to the power of art, Mathis der Maler, which saw him denounced by the Nazis. Serene, expansive and deeply humane, the Mathis der Maler symphony crowns tonight’s concert.

The performance is expected to finish around 9pm, including a 20 minute interval.

Part of Beethoven 250 at the Barbican

Barbican Hall