Mitsuko Uchida Plays Beethoven

Mitsuko Uchida plays Beethoven at the Royal Festival Hall on Wednesday 24 March 2027, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. It's a substantial programme that opens with the Prelude to Parsifal, the first act of Wagner's final opera, and closes with Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 in the Cohrs edition. In the middle is the main draw: Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3.

Uchida has a long history with Beethoven. Born in Atami in 1948, she won the International Beethoven Piano Competition in 1969 and was made a Dame in 2009; she later settled in London and took British citizenship. The concerto she's taking on here is the third of his five, often called his darkest, and it's paired with Bruckner's Seventh, a requiem to Wagner. There's a story that the symphony's opening came to Bruckner in a dream, played to him by an angel. The programme booklets lean into the idea that for Wagner, Beethoven and Bruckner, music held the key to existence itself.

There's a bit of a timing thing to keep in mind, too: the concert falls two days before the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's death. A Guardian review of Uchida's playing describes it as keen-sensed of the music's absurdities without exaggerating its quirks, revealing a sincere, profound truth behind Beethoven's deliberate heavy-footedness. That's the kind of thing to look for in the concerto.

Jurowski, LPO Conductor Emeritus, frames the evening with the Wagner prelude, and the whole thing runs about two and a half hours. It starts at 7.30pm at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX. Standard entry is from £20, with concessions available.