Sir András Schiff and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment play Beethoven's most famous and extravagant piano concerto, the ‘Emperor’ (No. 5).

Schiff points to the innovation to be found in this piece with its unprecedented huge cadenza at the start (rather than the more conventional placing at the end of a movement), whilst for him the work’s most magical moment is the transition from second movement to finale: ‘Time seems to stand still. Then we burst into this wonderful dance.” There can be few works more befitting of Schiff’s observation that the “concerto remains a very public affair, but a public affair in the very best sense of the word.”

The final part of this series which is filmed in black and white and is a beautiful showcase of craftsmanship and musicality. Schiff plays a recreation of an 1822 Graf fortepiano in a captivating, historically informed, performance. This concert was filmed on 9 June 2022 at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.