ABC Classics is thrilled to announce the release of the complete piano concertos by Beethoven, performed by pianist Jayson Gillham, with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Carter. This cycle the first in twenty years recorded with an Australian pianist, conductor and orchestra is a major contribution to the ongoing celebrations of Beethoven's 250th anniversary. Beethoven's five piano concertos stand at the very pinnacle of classical music. Written between 1795 and 1809, they trace the evolution of Beethoven's music from the inheritor of the Classical style perfected by Mozart and Haydn, to the inventor of a style that was entirely his own: dramatic, expressive, and revolutionary. Recorded in five concerts performed over 10 days at Adelaide's Elder Hall in June 2019, these recordings capture a soloist, conductor and orchestra totally in sync with each other, with a shared vision for the sound world and rhetoric of these mighty works. Reviews of the concert remarked at the "chamber music-like intimacy" between the performers, with a "sense of balance and support often never heard before within these well-known and much listened to works" (Limelight). "The idea of pairing Australia's finest up and coming pianist with our finest contemporary conductor to perform and record a cycle is a great one." (Limelight)
