Beethoven & Schostakowitsch

Are there, in these two rousing works, unambiguous «heroes» who have to undergo existential battles? Or just people like you and me, who have more prosaic struggles, but nonetheless must overcome serious crises? Either way, it is difficult not to perceive, at least in part, an artistic echo of his progressive hearing loss in the gripping drama of Ludwig van Beethoven’s C minor Piano Concerto. And even if Dmitri Shostakovich’s Tenth develops from night to light following Beethoven’s example, this is not so much the story of a brilliant triumph, but rather of the incredible luck of a composer who was able to survive the horrors of Stalinism relatively unscathed. There is no doubt that the young Portuguese conductor Nuno Coelho and the French pianist Cédric Tiberghien have chosen capital works for their first collaboration with the Tonkunstler: an exciting evening is guaranteed.