Eroica Symphony

Two hundred years since the death of Beethoven, there remains no composer who has changed music, art and society so profoundly. In the first of a series of concerts marking the anniversary, Marios Papadopoulos conducts the symphony that expanded the ambition and scale of orchestral music almost overnight – the unstoppable force that is Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’. To open the concert and the series, Marios takes to the piano to play and direct a performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 – the piece in whose compelling rhythmic drive and unorthodox harmonic shifts Viennese audiences first sensed that this was a composer who was about to re-write the rules in music of deep humanity and shattering power. Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15 Beethoven Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55, ‘Eroica’ Marios Papadopoulos conductor/piano Pre-concert talk by Sir Nicholas Kenyon Beginning Beethoven Year: a preview of the season The Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra is devoting a major part of its season in 2027 to Beethoven. Nicholas Kenyon introduces some of the themes of this major year-long celebration. Tickets: £18, £30, £32, £42, £58 (Students from £5) Time: 19:30 Duration: 120 min Venue: Sheldonian Theatre, Broad Street Pre-concert talk: 18:30