Australian Haydn Ensemble - Beethoven 4th Piano Concerto

“Led by McIntosh, it was immediately apparent that this is a crack team.” Limelight Magazine, September 2016

Australian Haydn Ensemble
Skye McIntosh - Artistic Director
Neal Peres Da Costa - Fortepiano

Beethoven’s 4th Piano Concerto, filled with lightness, beauty and majesty is the perfect way to experience the sensitive and historically interpretive keyboard playing of Dr Neal Peres Da Costa.

As part of an ongoing AHE cycle, we explore chamber versions of Beethoven’s piano concertos, reflective of 18th century practice. This year we are using as a basis, Beethoven’s own sketches for a new version of his 4th Piano Concerto.

We also present an Australian premiere of an 18th century chamber version of Beethoven’s 2nd Symphony, recently discovered by AHE in the rare music collection of the British Library.

Neal Peres Da Costa’s monograph Off the Record: Performing Practices in Romantic Piano Playing (Oxford University Press, New York, 2012) has received critical acclaim. Limelight Magazine hailed it as 'engaging and thought provoking'…and a book that 'no serious pianist should be without.’ Alex Ross (music critic of The New Yorker and author of The Rest is Noise) honoured it as a notable book on his 2012 Apex List.

Neal will perform on a fortepiano after Conrad Graf (c. 1820), generously made available from the Sydney Conservatoirum of Music and Australian National University historical keyboard collections. Join us for this wonderful historically informed and enlightening musical experience.