London Philharmonic Orchestra – Emperor

Beethoven never actually called his Fifth Piano Concerto the ‘Emperor’. It just seemed to fit. But what’s beyond question is that this most majestic of all piano concertos is one of the pinnacles of art in the age of revolution: a concerto on the scale of a great symphony, written for a pianist of truly heroic stamina and skill. It’s the only possible way for Javier Perianes to crown his complete Beethoven concerto cycle with Juanjo Mena and the LPO. But first, a flashback to the unbridled joie de vivre of Beethoven’s youthful Piano Concerto No. 1: music as pure sonic sunshine.