Beethoven Evening | Guliyev | Symphony Orchestra

Performers: Ayyub Guliyev — conductor

winner of the Piano Competition “Beethoven 200” — piano

Silesian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra

Program: Ludwig van Beethoven — Coriolan overture op. 62

Ludwig van Beethoven — piano concerto performed by the laureate of the “Beethoven 200” competition

Ludwig van Beethoven — Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36

Dramatic Coriolan, a piano concerto interpreted by the winner of the Beethoven 200 Piano Competition and the energetic Second Symphony will be part of an evening dedicated to the work of Ludwig van Beethoven — a composer standing at the border of two eras and redefining the possibilities of symphonic music.

The concert will be conducted by Ayyub Guliyev — Azerbaijani conductor, winner of the Arturo Toscanini International Conducting Competition in Parma and winner of the Witold Lutosławski Young Conductors Competition in Bialystok. For many years he has been the artistic director and the first conductor of the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater of Azerbaijan, at the same time cooperating with numerous orchestras and opera theaters in Europe and Asia.

The evening will open with an overture of Coriolan Op. 62, one of Beethoven's most dramatic orchestral works. It was created as the music for Heinrich Joseph von Collin's tragedy telling the story of a Roman chieftain torn between ambition, honor and loyalty to his homeland. From the very first bars, the composer builds an atmosphere of inner conflict, contrasting violent, heroic themes and lyrical passages symbolizing the voice of reason and reconciliation.

The central point of the program will be one of Ludwig van Beethoven's piano concertos. Regardless of the choice of the work, the audience will hear music from the period when the composer gradually developed his own creative language. While still retaining the elegance and clarity of the classical form, Beethoven gave the piano part a new role — more independent, virtuosic and full of individual character. His concerts remain to this day among the most important works of the piano repertoire, combining technical brilliance with the extraordinary power of musical narration.

The second part of the evening will be completed by Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36 — a work created at a turning point in the composer's life. It was then that Beethoven became more and more painfully aware of his progressive hearing loss, as evidenced by the famous Testament of Heiligenstadt. Paradoxically, the music of the Second Symphony is full of energy, optimism and creative momentum. Already contemporaries noted its boldness, elaborate forms and exuberance that went beyond the classical patterns of the era.

Symphony No. 2 occupies a special place in the work of Beethoven. On the one hand, it remains rooted in the tradition of Haydn and Mozart, on the other, it already clearly foreshadows the birth of a new style, which in the following years will bring Eroica, Fifth Symphony and other masterpieces that change the history of music. It is here for the first time that a composer is so clearly heard, ready to cross the boundaries of his era and open the way to musical romanticism.

CONCERT INFORMANT