Duo Pleyel: Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony

Duo Pleyel return to the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall on Wednesday 20 March, with Beethoven's Symphonies nos. 6 'Pastoral' and 8 on the programme. Both are performed as four-hand piano arrangements by Carl Czerny, so you'll have two pianists sharing a single keyboard rather than a full orchestra.

That's the whole point of the project they're in the middle of. Duo Pleyel is the partnership of pianists Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya and Richard Egarr, who've played together for eight years and take their name from their 1848 piano. In May 2023 they started a three-year recording project of the complete Beethoven symphonies in four-hand arrangements by the composer's student Carl Czerny. Czerny was a virtuoso and teacher who preceded Liszt, and his transcriptions were known to Beethoven himself.

The duo's return to the University of York is part of the university's Beethoven 200 celebrations, marking the bicentenary of the composer's death in 2027. The 2026/27 season features four of these arrangements ahead of the recording's spring release, and this night brings the Pastoral and the Eighth to the hall. It's a chance to hear these symphonies stripped back to the piano, played by the two people who've spent the last few years working their way through the whole set.

The concert starts at 7pm at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, York YO10 5DD.