Gábor Takács-Nagy conducts the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra in two masterpieces by Mozart and Beethoven, featuring solo pianist Stephen Kovacevich, in the 2014 Verbier Festival.
Rich, expressive and tenderly poetic, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 figures among the composer's most famous works. The work's intensely expressive writing, centered around the impeccably-balanced dialogue between piano and orchestra, give it a profoundly human dimension and display Mozart at the height of his creativity.
Critics first described Beethoven's Eroica as "dull, interminable, and rambling," but the work is now most remembered for its brash and groundbreaking stylistic innovation. In the Eroica , Beethoven rejected the strict structure of the classical symphony, and entered into what we now refer to as his "second" style. A study in extremes, the emotional realm of the symphony is characteristic of Beethoven.
Photo: © Nicolas Brodard