Beethoven's Complete Piano Concertos 1 – Dénes Várjon and Concerto Budapest A Zeneakadémia saját szervezésű programja

In an age hungry for various artistic marathons and musical endurance records the news that Dénes Várjon will play all Beethoven’s piano concertos at two concerts and with just a gap of a week between them would appear to be nothing out of the ordinary. Of course, this would be the case only for those who are not clear about the significance of Dénes Várjon’s undertaking. Playing the entire piano concerto repertoire of Beethoven is not primarily a challenge technically speaking (although it is incredibly demanding), but rather an intellectual trial. The odd numbered works at this first concert bring the genre of Bildungsroman (character novel, contemporaneous with Beethoven) to the stage of the Grand Hall. We can trace how Beethoven, who consciously embraced the Mozartian heritage, evolved from his first piano concerto to the heroic composition in E flat major by discovering his own unique compositional signature sound (C minor concerto).