The Viennese audience had never heard anything quite like it before: even the very first chord of Beethoven’s First Symphony creates explosive tension! In his exploration of the symphonic genre, the composer does not play it safe, but presents himself as bold and original.

Beethoven’s ingenuity became his hallmark: each of his symphonies brought something new and surprising – as does his Eighth, which plays with the audience’s listening habits.

Between the two Beethoven works, Kirill Gerstein and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, conducted by Andrés Orozco-Estrada, will perform Robert Schumann’s only piano concerto – a Romantic musical dialogue full of poetry and passion.