Beethovens Pianoconcert nr. 4 met Alice Sara Ott

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 with Alice Sara Ott

A reviewer wrote of pianist Alice Sara Ott that her mastery of dynamics is extraordinary, with a ppp that gently tickles the ear. The German-Japanese musician performs Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto at the Concertgebouw, a composer she enjoys delving into. This Fourth must have sounded revolutionary at the time: Beethoven dispensed with an orchestral introduction, letting the piano begin, softly and lyrically. The brilliant concerto is grist to Ott's mill, who is accompanied by the Netherlands Philharmonic under the direction of Roberto González-Monjas.

Respighi's Fontane and Pini di Roma

The young Respighi was concertmaster of the opera orchestra in Saint Petersburg when he studied with Rimsky-Korsakov. His sense of theater and his fantastic orchestral color stem from this period; you can hear them reflected in his Roman musical paintings. Fontane di Roma from 1916 and Pini di Roma from eight years later were driven with fire by the great conductor Arturo Toscanini. A total novelty in Pini was the use of a gramophone to present the nightingale. And an orchestra will rarely sound wetter than in Fontane di Roma .