Five concertos in two days

John Lill

For me, one of the highlights of this year's symphony season is John Lill performing all five Beethoven piano concertos in a two-day series.

Last night was the first night, which kicked it off with concertos #4 and #5 (1-3 are tonight); I'm not quite sure why they aren't being played in order. No matter. I love the idea of a "total immersion" in a composer over a series of concerts -- in years past the symphony has done more of this as special festivals (including Beethoven and Shostakovitch).

I've not seen John Lill perform previously. He's got a magnificent, delicate touch. The second movement of the 5th (the Emperor) was sublime.

Oddly, the third movement of the 5th contained the most obvious musical gaff I've heard in all my symphony-going years. A short, but critical horn solo just didn't come out of the horn. There were a few muffled notes emitted and that was it. Very strange -- I'm not sure whether there was a technical problem with the horn or what. Chalk it up to a bad horn day? (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

The concert was relatively well-attended but by no means sold out. I expected a bigger crowd for this. It's part of the Symphony Specials series (which tends toward lighter-weight repertoire) rather than the main Masterpiece series, so that might be part of it.