Emanuel Ax performs Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 — With Rafael Payare and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal

Admire the great Emanuel Ax, one of the finest pianists of his generation, in Beethoven’s monumental Piano Concerto No. 3! Ax has been performing and perfecting this cornerstone of the piano repertoire for over 40 years, and he returns to it here with Venezuelan maestro Rafael Payare and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, who also interpret a world premiere and a 20th-century symphonic masterpiece.

Ludwig van Beethoven, already known at the start of his career for his pianistic and improvisation talents, performed his Third Concerto himself at the work’s premiere in 1803, even playing missing parts from memory. Now, eight-time Grammy winner Ax lends his extraordinary virtuosity to the work’s thrilling, fiery C-minor first and third movements as well as its exquisitely tender E-major second movement, not forgetting cadenzas Ax himself describes as “unbelievably inspired and brilliant” (PAN M 360). The program also features the world premiere of British-Canadian composer Isabella Gellis’s finely wrought Invitations, commissioned by the OSM, and Prokofiev’s triumphant, grandiose Symphony No. 5 — an ode to “the free and happy Man,” as the composer himself stated, “[a theme that] was born in me and clamored for expression…. It filled my soul.”