Simply Beethoven: “Eroica” and Piano Concerto No. 1 with Dudamel

Two of Beethoven’s leading interpreters unite for an illuminating journey into the composer’s world. Rudolf Buchbinder, a “paragon of the elegant Viennese style” (Los Angeles Times) and “a true Beethoven authority” (The Guardian), kicks off a complete cycle of Beethoven piano concertos with the first of the set to be published. “I always discover something new in such masterpieces,” Buchbinder says, capturing the emergence of Beethoven’s mature voice. The program culminates with the Third Symphony, a revolutionary work written for a revolutionary time. Though he originally intended to name the symphony after Napoleon, Beethoven rescinded the title after Napoleon crowned himself emperor and called it “Eroica,” instead. This “heroic” work, brimming with emotion and Enlightenment ideals, continues to enthrall us more than 200 years later.