Celebrating Beethoven

Nashville Symphony | Nathan Aspinall, conductor | Inon Barnatan, piano

In 1802, Beethoven sat alone in a village outside Vienna and wrote a letter to his brothers that he never sent. He was going deaf. He was in despair. He contemplated ending his life. Then he went home and wrote music so full of joy and light that it astonishes listeners to this day.

The Piano Concerto No. 4 opens with the soloist alone, quietly, as if thinking out loud, before the orchestra responds. The New York Times calls pianist Inon Barnatan "one of the most admired pianists of his generation." He has recorded all of Beethoven's Concertos to great acclaim. 

Symphony No. 2 closes the evening in pure exuberance. It's Beethoven's defiant, life-affirming answer to everything the world had thrown at him thus far.