"The challenge for a performer," says Ilya Itin, the Russian-born pianist who will play the Fourth Piano Concerto, "is to combine the passion, dramatic freedom, spontaneity, and structural integrity that Beethoven intended."
Ludwig van Beethoven (17701827) is most famous for his instrumental works, but he did pen an opera and a ballet, both of which get treatment at the fest. Without benefit of dancers, the orchestra will play Beethoven's sole ballet score, Die Geschöpfe Des Prometheus (The Creatures of Prometheus). A semistaged version of Beethoven's opera, Fidelio, will be brought to life with special-effects lighting and narration. Last year's sold-out "Missa Solemnis" and the Ninth Symphony ("Choral") with its rousing "Ode to Joy" finale are slated for performance again this year. So is Beethoven's masterwork, the spine-tingling Fifth Symphony, the sheer majesty of which makes you realize exactly why his compositions so seldom needed words.