McDermott Plays Beethoven: The First & the Emperor

Academy of St Martin in the Fields Anne-Marie McDermott, piano

Orchestral Series

Saturday, June 27, 2026 at 6pm Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater

Renowned pianist and Bravo! Vail Artistic Director Anne-Marie McDermott returns to complete all five Beethoven Concertos, performing Nos. 1 and 5, the Emperor, with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

Media Sponsor:

Harvey de Souza, director
Anne-Marie McDermott, piano

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 1
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor

All artists, programs, and pricing subject to change.

Please join us in the lobby of the GRFA at 5:10 PM for a pre-concert performance from the Young Musicians Summit.

Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15 (ca.1795/1800)

Beethoven’s C-major Piano
Concerto was his first to be
published—in March 1801—
which is why it is universally
labelled his Piano Concerto No. 1 while
his Concerto in B-flat major, composed
earlier but published later, is called
his Second. Like its predecessor and
the C-minor Concerto that would
follow, the Concerto No. 1 clearly
counts Mozart among its ancestors.
One hears the connection particularly
in sections that make prominent use
of the trumpets, horns, and timpani,
which Mozart was fond of employing in
C-major orchestral pieces. But on the
whole, this concerto of Beethoven’s
exhibits assertive originality. The first
movement displays the subtlety of
a profound musical intelligence, and
connoisseurs can profitably investigate
its structural niceties, particularly in
the magical development section
at its center. The Largo is moody
and contemplative, prefiguring such
famous slow movements as that of the
Pathétique Sonata, which would follow
within a few years. But it is in the finale
that we glimpse the most unmistakably
Beethovenian traits, including a
boisterous sense of humor, an appetite
for mixing high sophistication with less
elevated references, and an abiding
fondness for surprise.

A review of an 1804 performance
of this concerto was both appreciative
and wary: “A new fortepiano concerto
by Beethoven, provided with chromatic
passages and enharmonic changes,
occasionally to the point of bizarrerie,
concluded the first part. ... The last
movement, All’ Inglese, distinguished
itself only by its unusual rhythms
and also was well executed.” The
reference to the finale All’ Inglese (In
English Style) may leave us scratching
our heads, but that term would have
been clear to music-lovers then.
Daniel Türk’s 1789 Klavierschule (Piano
Method) explains: “The Anglaise
(English Dance) ... is for the most part
of a very spirited character which often
borders on the moderately comic.
It ... is played in a very lively, almost
skipping manner. The first note of every
measure is strongly accented.” That
precisely describes the rondo finale of
Beethoven’s C-major Concerto.

Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.
5 was born into troubled times, with
the Napoleonic Wars coursing to full
tide across Europe and the composer’s
Vienna enduring occupation by the
French military. People fled Vienna
in droves. Hoping to keep Beethoven
from joining the exodus, his piano
pupil Archduke Rudolph—along with
two of his aristocratic friends, Prince
Lobkowitz and Price Kinsky—pledged
to support Beethoven for life as
long as he remained in Vienna or
thereabouts. Who knows if he would
have stayed but for that inducement?
“We have been suffering misery in
a most concentrated form,” wrote
Beethoven in July 1809 to his publisher
in Leipzig. “What a destructive and
disorderly life I see and hear around
me, nothing but drums, cannons,
human misery in every form.”

Through it all he had been
writing a piano concerto, and it is
marvelous to think that something so
uplifting and inspiring could emerge
from such dismal surroundings.
When it finally received its Vienna
premiere two years later, a French
officer in the audience shouted out
“C’est l’Empereur!”—at least so the
tale is told. The name stuck, with the
ironic result that throughout history
this concerto, Beethoven’s last, has
been shackled with a nickname
relating to the Emperor Napoleon
Bonaparte, the same Napoleon in
whom Beethoven had once placed so
much humanitarian hope but whose
name he had scratched from the titlepage dedication of his Sinfonia eroica,
enraged upon learning that the French
general had crowned himself Emperor.

Uniquely among his five
piano concertos, this one was not
premiered by its composer. By the
time it was introduced, in 1811, he
was substantially deaf and he no
longer felt comfortable performing
publicly at the keyboard (though he
would still do so on rare occasions).
The world premiere, in Leipzig, was
accordingly entrusted to Friedrich
Schneider, of whom we know little
except that he had a friendly visit with
Beethoven in 1819 when he passed
through Vienna giving organ recitals.
The Vienna premiere took place only
on February 12, 1812, when the soloist
was Beethoven’s pupil Carl Czerny.
Anton Schindler, for many years
Beethoven’s amanuensis, published
a Beethoven biography in 1840—a
work of mixed credibility. Here’s
an item from his account of the
Vienna premiere of the Emperor
Concerto:

The very brief review of the
E-flat Concerto by the critic of the
Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung
will be sufficient to give the reader
the idea of the public reception
of the work. Here is the review in
its entirety: “The immense length
of the composition robs it of the
impact that this product of a
gigantic intellect would otherwise
practice upon its hearers.” Who
would today [i.e., 1840] find this
concerto excessively long? This
critical remark shows us once
more that it was then, as later,
the external form of Beethoven’s
works that gave the most offence.

Most modern listeners would
agree with Schindler that the length
of the Emperor Concerto does
not in any way represent a flaw. In
fact, everything in this work seems
essential, from the opening chords
and ensuing piano cadenza—certainly
unanticipated by its first hearers—
through its potentially transcendent
slow movement (though it is certainly
possible to pace this Adagio too
languidly) and on to the spirited Finale
with its dance-like spirit thrown into
highest relief through the interject
of a surprising moment of adagio
and pianissimo before a rowdy but
scintillating coda

Artist Biographies

Harvey de Souza

Anne-Marie McDermott

Photo Credit: Sophie Zhai

One of the most dazzling American pianists of her generation, Anne-Marie McDermott has played concertos, recitals, and chamber music in hundreds of cities throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. She is one of the most versatile, respected, and best-reviewed pianists of our time. McDermott continues her tenure as music and artistic director of the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, in Colorado, through 2026, which hosts world-renowned artists and orchestras. She is also the artistic director of the Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival, in Florida; the artistic director of the McKnight Center’s Chamber Music Festival, at Oklahoma State University; and a former curator of the Mainly Mozart Spotlight Series, in San Diego.

Highlights of McDermott’s 2025-26 season include a Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center tour of the United States, including Alice Tully Hall; Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and No. 4, with music director Otto Tausk; a performance with violinist Richard Lin at Rose Studio, with music by Mozart, Brahms, Fauré, and Paul Schoenfield; a tour of Spain and Portugal; Sociedad Filarmónica de Lima, Peru; Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; and North Carolina Symphony, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor,” with music director Carlos Miguel Prieto.

Last season McDermott performed Amy Beach’s Piano Concerto with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra (MA); performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Paducah Symphony Orchestra (KY); Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Des Moines Symphony and Palm Beach Symphony; with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall in New York City, and on tour in Chicago, Grand Rapids, Kansas City, Ashland (OR), and Vienna (VA). She also appeared in a special chamber music program at the New World Symphony, in Miami Beach, that included Messiaen’s wartime masterwork Quartet for the End of Time; performed as a member of the SPA Trio — with soprano Susanna Phillips and violist Paul Neubauer — at the Rockefeller University, and at Arizona Friends of Chamber Music; and in a chamber music program at the McKnight Center for the Performing Arts, in Stillwater (OK).

In previous seasons McDermott has performed with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, both resulting in immediate re-engagements. She also performed Mozart with the New York Philharmonic at the McKnight Center in Stillwater. Other international highlights include recitals in France at the famed Piano aux Jacobins, in Toulouse; performances with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra at the Cartagena International Music Festival; and an all-Haydn recital tour of China.

The breadth of McDermott’s repertoire ranges from Bach, Haydn, and Beethoven to Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Scriabin, also including works by today’s most influential composers. McDermott is currently recording the complete Beethoven piano concertos with Mexico City’s illustrious Sinfónica de Minería, under conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto. She has also recorded the complete piano sonatas of Prokofiev, solo works by Chopin, Bach’s English Suites and Partitas (Editor’s Choice, Gramophone Magazine), and Gershwin’s complete works for piano and orchestra with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (also Editor’s Choice, Gramophone Magazine). She released an album of Mozart concertos with the Calder Quartet that was praised as “exceptional on every count” by Gramophone Magazine. She has recorded five Haydn piano sonatas and two Haydn concertos with the Odense Philharmonic, in Denmark, including two cadenzas written by the late American composer Charles Wuorinen.

In recent years, McDermott participated in the New Century Chamber Orchestra’s Silver Jubilee all-Gershwin program and embarked on a cycle of Beethoven concertos at Santa Fe Pro Musica. She is currently recording the complete Beethoven piano concertos with Mexico City’s illustrious Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, under the direction of Carlos Miguel Prieto. She also premiered and recorded a new concerto by the Danish composer Poul Ruders with the Vancouver Symphony, alongside Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Variations, and returned to play Gershwin with the New York Philharmonic at Bravo! Vail. Other recent highlights include performing the Mozart Concerto, K. 595 with the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Sir Donald Runnicles; the Bach D minor concerto with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra; and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 with the New York City-based Le Train Bleu.

McDermott continues to perform with many leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the symphonies of Dallas, Seattle, Houston, Colorado, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Atlanta, San Diego, New Jersey, Columbus, and Baltimore. She has also toured with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Moscow Virtuosi.

McDermott is a winner of the Mortimer Levitt Career Development Award for Women, the Young Concert Artists auditions, and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. She also received a 2024 Honorary Doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied. She lives in New York City with her husband, Michael.

PRESTO CLUB: Presto Club Night: Youth ages 8-14 are invited to attend pre-concert activities and social lawn experience on this concert. Click here to learn more.