Sometimes, chance works in our favor.
At the finals of the 65th Busoni Competition, one of the contestants—Chinese pianist Yifan Wu, who would go on to win both the First Prize and the Audience Award—delivered a rather unique, forward-looking interpretation of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor. This happened to coincide with the very moment I was grappling with that same score in my own study—at the stage of doubt (which, as we know, comes after knowledge, not before!).
Listening to that performance at the Teatro Comunale in Bolzano didn’t resolve my doubts, but instead cast them in a new light—thanks to a second stroke of luck: the opportunity to briefly speak with the conductor of that performance, George Pehlivanian. I had greatly admired his gesture and control during the concert, and later came to appreciate his spirit of service toward the soloist—something especially meaningful in the context of a competition.
Beethoven’s Third Concerto is one of the centerpieces of my upcoming musical project with the Orchestra Giovanile Regionale Filarmonia Veneta, and it is also the piece through which I will collaborate with Maya Oganyan—a young pianist with an already impressive résumé.
Twenty years old and born in Moscow, Maya has won over twenty competitions, including the 2023 Schumann Prize and the Verona International Piano Competition. She was a “student in residence” at the Verbier Festival, where she studied with András Schiff and Kirill Gerstein, and has performed with orchestras such as the La Fenice Philharmonic and the Armenian Philharmonic. She has also collaborated with renowned artists like Steven Isserlis, Ian Bostridge, and Alessandro Carbonare.
As for “our” Beethoven—whether it will be soft and restrained like the version Yifan Wu guided the Haydn Orchestra through, or more dramatic and forceful, as hinted at and discussed with Maestro Pehlivanian after the concert—that is still a work in progress.
What is certain is that it will be framed by two powerful images: the heroic C minor of the Coriolan Overture before it, and the regal brilliance of Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 in D major, the “Haffner,” after it. These two pieces inspired the concert’s title.
And in reflecting on this, I sense that Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto might, in some way, embody both of those qualities: heroic in spirit, regal in its unfolding.
Audiences will have three opportunities to hear this rich program within a month: on the evening of Saturday, September 27 at the Teatro Accademico in Castelfranco Veneto; the following afternoon at the Teatro della Fondazione Maffioli in Villa Benzi, Caerano San Marco; and finally on Sunday, October 19 in Schio, as the opening concert of the Teatro Civico’s new season.