Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 'Emperor' / Piano Concerto No. 0, WoO 4

These works share the common key of E flat major but represent two very different stages in the composer's life. The Piano Concerto No. 0, WoO 4, written when Beethoven was 13 years old, is one of his earliest works. With the orchestral score lost, this extant version for piano solo written in Beethoven's hand includes the tutti sections reduced for piano. The radiant 'Emperor' Concerto shows the 38-year-old Beethoven at the peak of his creative powers, and remains a glorious example of his spirit triumphing over life's adversities.

Pianist Boris Giltburg is lauded across the globe as a deeply sensitive, insightful and compelling musician. In 2020 he undertook to learn and record on audio and audiovisual all 32 Beethoven sonatas, coinciding with the first volume of the complete Beethoven piano concertos, recorded with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Vasily Petrenko, with whom he previously recorded both Shostakovich concertos, winning a Diapason d'Or. This recording also featured his own arrangement of Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 for solo piano. The first volume in his complete Rachmaninov concerto recordings series, coupled with the Études-Tableaux and subsequently the Corelli Variations, won the award for Best Solo Recording at the inaugural Opus Klassik Awards.