Kremerata Baltica, the chamber orchestra founded by Gidon Kremer and enjoying a fruitful partnership with Concerto Budapest, team up with Ivett Gyöngyösi, winner of a whole handful of competitions including the first season of the TV classical music talent show Virtuózok, under the baton of András Keller. This time the young pianist plays the Piano Concerto in E minor (1830) composed by the equally youthful, 20-year-old Chopin who was bidding farewell to his Polish homeland. The second half of the concert is filled with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, the work that attracted the epithet ‘the apotheosis of dance’ by Wagner (and many others).

Although the A major symphony dating from 1811-12 was overshadowed by the ‘Battle Symphony’ at the 1813 premiere, its popularity and recognition have grown enormously since. Its second movement, the famous Allegretto with its single massive crescendo, has served as background music to several films. For example, most recently this high-impact music – reminiscent more of a funeral march than light airiness – featured in a key scene of The King’s Speech.