Following a successful recital at the Queen Elizabeth Hall this week where he performed two demanding piano sonatas from Beethoven and Ives, Pierre-Laurent Aimard joins the Philharmonia Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen to perform in the reconstruction of Beethoven’s epic Vienna concert of December 1808 on 14 March at The Anvil, Basingstoke and on 15 March at the Royal Festival Hall, London.

The concept for Sunday’s concert lies in Beethoven’s Akademie concert at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien, performed three days before Christmas in 1808, which was both a ​“crowning triumph and plagued by mishaps”. Unusually, three of Beethoven’s masterpieces – Symphony No.5 and Symphony No.6, and Piano Concerto No.4 – received their public premiere in this unique and extravagantly lengthy concert conducted, and in the case of the piano concerto, played by Beethoven himself. 

Renowned South-African soprano, Golda Schultz joins the line-up, making her debut with the orchestra singing one of the composer’s early works, Ah! Perfido. She will return to the UK this summer for a new production of Dialogues des Carmélites by Barrie Kosky for Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Also included in Sunday’s concert is the great comedian, actor and writer, Stephen Fry who will present comical descriptions of the original concert taken from the letters, reviews and diaries of those who were there.