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Leif Ove Andsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra complete their cycle of Beethoven Piano Concertos with Nos. 2 and 5 – the composer’s first and final experiments in the genre.

In No. 2 a spacious and lovely central Adagio is framed with Mozartean grace in the outer movements, while the Fifth is the composer’s last word on the subject – a musical emancipation of the soloist that anticipates the Romantic concertos of Beethoven’s successors. Looking to the musical past for inspiration once again, Stravinsky’s Octet pastiches the forms and textures of the 18th century, colouring them with a mood and mischief all his own.