Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 5 Lars Vogt & Royal Northern Sinfonia

• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15:
• 1I. Allegro con brio17:35
• 2II. Largo10:10
• 3III. Rondo. Allegro scherzando08:32
• Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat Major, Op. 73 "Emperor":
• 4I. Allegro19:39
• 5II. Adagio un poco mosso07:13
• 6III. Rondo. Allegro10:09
• Total Runtime01:13:18

Info for Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 5

Lars Vogt continues his Ondine recordings with a new cycle of Beethovens Piano Concertos. Conducting the Royal Nothern Sinfonia from the keyboard Lars Vogt shows the brilliance and the beauty of these two majestic works of the classic piano concerto literature. Beethoven made an early reputation for himself as a keyboard player. Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 5 feature two opposite sides in Beethovens career: the 1st concerto is a masterpiece by a young composer in his 20s who is already looking into new dimensions of musical expression. Although it was his first published piano concerto Beethoven had already made serious attemps in the genre large part of the material to his 2nd concerto also predate the 1st concerto. The 5th concerto, commonly known as the Emperor concerto, was written between his 6th and 7th Symphonies when Vienna was under Napoleons occupation. During bombardment Beethoven, now 39 and increasingly deaf, had sheltered in the cellar of his brother, covering his head with a pillow against the noise of the cannons. Beethoven dedicated the work to Archduke Rudolph who had fled the city. Despite of its joyful, optimistic and hopeful character, occasionally echoes of war disrupt the work creating a strong impact. The work was premiered two years later in November 1811. Lars Vogt was appointed the first ever Pianist in Residence by the Berlin Philharmonic in 2003/04 and enjoys a high profile as a soloist and chamber musician. His debut solo recording on Ondine with Bachs Goldberg Variations (ODE 1273-2) was released in August 2015 and has been a major critical success. The albums tracks have also been streamed online over 6 million times. Lars Vogt started his tenure as Music Director of the Royal Northern Sinfonia in September 2015.

Royal Northern Sinfonia
Lars Vogt, piano, conductor

Lars Vogt
has rapidly established himself as one of the leading pianists of his generation. Born in the German town of Düren in 1970, he first came to public attention when he won second prize at the 1990 Leeds International Piano Competition and has enjoyed a varied career for over twenty years. His versatility as an artist ranges from the core classical repertoire of Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms to the romantics Grieg, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov through to the dazzling Lutoslawski concerto. A keen chamber musician, Lars Vogt is now increasingly working with orchestras both as conductor and directing from the keyboard.

Lars Vogt opened the 2012/13 season performing the Lutoslawski Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Moest at the Edinburgh Festival. He returns to the Cleveland Orchestra later in the season and additional North American appearances feature the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and a recital at the Y in New York. Other highlights of the season include concerts with the Leipzig Gewandhaus under Riccardo Chailly, two appearances in Paris with the Orchestre de Paris under Herbert Blomstedt and with the Orchestre National under Kurt Masur, and the conclusion of his residency with the Netherlands Philharmonic at the Concertgebouw Hall in Amsterdam. He also appears with Vienna Radio Symphony, NDR Hamburg, Swedish Radio, Brussels Philharmonic and the Liceu Opera Orchestra, Barcelona. In the UK he performs Beethoven concerti with the London Philharmonic under Christoph Eschenbach, London Symphony under Daniel Harding and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons.

During the 2011/12 season Lars Vogt made several appearances in North America, performing with orchestras in Toronto, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Seattle and undertaking an extensive tour with Christian Tetzlaff to New York, Philadelphia and other major cities. Concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra featured prominently both with Vladimir Jurowski in London and on tour in the UK and Germany with Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Other concerto engagements included the New Japan Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Rotterdam Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Spain and orchestras in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Milan, Florence and Copenhagen. Recital appearances featured the International Piano Series in London and the Konzerthaus, Vienna.

Lars Vogt’s special relationship with the Berlin Philharmonic has continued with regular collaborations following his appointment as their first ever “Pianist in Residence” in 2003/4. He has also worked with many other German orchestras including Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bayerische Rundfunk, Frankfurt Radio, Dresden Staatskapelle, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Guerzenich Cologne and Deutscheskammerphilharmonie Bremen. Other highlights over recent seasons have included many appearances at the BBC Proms and a residency at the Mozartwoche in Salzburg with the Vienna Philharmonic/Christoph Eschenbach and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra/Daniel Harding; as well as appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, NHK Symphony, London Symphony, Philharmonia, Royal Concertgebouw, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Swedish Radio, Finnish Radio, Czech Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris.

Lars Vogt enjoys a high profile as a chamber musician and recent appearances have included London, Paris, Munich, Madrid, Rome and New York. In June 1998 he founded his own festival in Heimbach, Germany. Known as “Spannungen”, its huge success has been marked by the release of ten live recordings on EMI. He enjoys regular partnerships with colleagues such as Christian Tetzlaff and Thomas Quasthoff and collaborates occasionally with actor Klaus-Maria Brandauer and comedian Konrad Beikircher. In 2005 he founded “Rhapsody in School” which has become a high profile education project across Germany. Lars Vogt is also an accomplished and enthusiastic teacher and was recently appointed Professor of Piano at the Hannover Conservatory of Music, succeeding Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, his teacher and close friend who died in June 2012.

As an EMI recording artist, Lars Vogt made fifteen discs for the label, including the Hindemith Kammermusik No 2 with the Berlin Philharmonic/Claudio Abbado, the Schumann, Grieg and the first two Beethoven Concertos with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle, who has described him as "one of the most extraordinary musicians of any age group that I have had the fortune to be associated with". Recent recordings include solo Schubert for CAvi-music and Mozart Concerti with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra for Oehms, a solo Liszt and Schumann disc on the Berlin Classics label and Mozart Sonatas with Christian Tetzlaff for Ondine.

Booklet for Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 5