Live, Video: Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | English | Fantasia in C minor for piano, chorus, and orchestra "Choral Fantasy", Op.80

Directed by Gerard McBurney, this concert recreated the marathon Akademie conducted by Beethoven in Vienna which saw the premieres of four major works. 

The Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Andris Nelsons opens its 139th season with Poulenc, Beethoven and a world premiere of Eric Nathan's Concerto for Orchestra.

Enlightenment indeed at Lincoln Center as the Mostly Mozart Festival opens with a gloriouds hodge-podge. 

Yefim Bronfman was a magisterial soloist for Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto, plus a rousing Choral Fantasy.

For modern ears, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy is a curious beast, a hybrid of orchestral, concertante and choral genres and thus quite difficult to programme in a regular concert. 

Thursday December 22nd, 1808 was a bitterly cold day in Vienna. Beethoven took the stage in what was to be his last public performance as soloist with orchestra. The crammed programme lasted some four hours. Due to lack of rehearsal time, the evening didn’t go smoothly, with the final Choral Fantasy having to be stopped and started again.

Mozart’s Requiem – Piety, mythical murder, and mystery. Completed at the time of Mozart’s death and popularized by the 1984 movie Amadeus, this piece has since become the curiosity piece of audiences seeking the signature sensationalism of today’s state-of-the-arts media.