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, WoO4, 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.

Boris Giltburg with Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra have already recorded Beethoven’s First and Second Piano Concertos (8574151) in an album that has received wide critical acclaim: ‘Boris Giltburg plays both works with the youthful panache that they require… Petrenko accompanies with real flair’ (ClassicsToday.com).

Booklet notes for this disc have been written by Boris Giltburg, one of the features of previous releases that has proven to be an attraction.

Giltburg’s complete cycle of Beethoven’s Complete Piano Sonatas was recently released as a 9-disc box (8509005), each volume of which having already been admired: ‘These interpretations are enormously pleasurable and at times revelatory. Always clean and never showy, Giltburg’s pianism is ideally suited to late Beethoven, and his touch throughout is light and flexible’ (BBC Music Magazine on Vols. 8 and 9, 970314-15).

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. His recital discs of Rachmaninov, Liszt and Schumann have been similarly well received.

Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra have been recognised for their ‘world class achievement’ (The Sunday Times) in their cycle of Shostakovich symphonies (8501111); their release of Shostakovich’s Piano Concertos with Giltburg (8573666) also received wide critical acclaim: ‘a constantly illuminating, almost faultless project’ (Musical Opinion *****).