Beethoven's 5th Symphony

Pianist Boris Giltburg joins Royal Northern Sinfonia and its Principal Guest Conductor Nil Venditti for Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2, a compositional calling card from a 20-year-old making his debut in Warsaw in 1830, and in Paris two years later.

Clara Schumann, another of the 19th-century’s greatest pianists, was a champion of Chopin’s music, helping to establish it as a mainstay of the piano repertoire. She is the subject of Gabriella Ortiz’s orchestral piece Clara, which opens tonight’s concert. In it, Ortiz explores the relationship between Clara and Robert Schumann through the prism of her own musical world, born out of her native Mexico and its musics.

And Beethoven’s revolutionary Symphony No. 5, with its iconic four-note opening that goes on to permeate the whole piece, ends the concert with a bang.

Recorded on 3rd October 2025 at The Glasshouse, Gateshead.

Presented by Linton Stephens.

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Gabriela Ortiz: Clara
Fryderyk Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21

INTERVAL

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67

Boris Giltburg (piano)
Royal Northern Sinfonia
Nil Venditti (conductor)

Interval music
Clara Schumann: 3 Partsongs
North German Radio Choir
Philipp Ahmann (conductor)

To listen on most smart speakers just say 'ask BBC Sounds to play Radio 3 in Concert'.