London Philharmonic Orchestra | Fire and Light

Zimmermann Photoptosis
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3
Brahms Symphony No. 4

Vladimir Jurowski conductor
Mitsuko Uchida piano

Observe, respect and obey. Johannes Brahms lived by this mantra even in his most passionate and protest-filled music, but in his Fourth Symphony he appears to combine his lifelong servitude with a telling acceptance of death. This most luminous and spiritual of symphonies is Brahms’s supreme achievement in orchestral music, the summation of his quest to wed discipline and emotion. Beethoven, on the other hand, planned to smash musical convention with his fist. He really got going in his Third Piano Concerto, creating music of unprecedented drama and virtuosity that still leaps and bounds with life and fire.