LSO Artist Portrait: Bertrand Chamayou | London Symphony Orchestra

Prepare for the unexpected in Beethoven’s most surprising symphony, and Unsuk Chin’s brilliantly disorientating Piano Concerto.

Beethoven wrote two light hearted symphonies in especially difficult times. He composed his Second Symphony while struggling with his increasing deafness, and the Eighth coincides with a despairing letter to his ‘immortal beloved’, a mystery woman with whom he had a tragic affair.

Yet Symphony No 2 contains an offbeat ‘scherzo’ or ‘joke’ movement, and the surprises come thick and fast in the Eighth. Listen out for the laughter and footsteps in the second movement, and the double-take in the finale when the symphony discovers it’s in the wrong key.

François-Xavier Roth and the LSO bring a fresh perspective to Beethoven’s enduring works, and precision to the charming paradoxes of Unsuk Chin’s Concerto. Bertrand Chamayou dives deep into Chin’s oeuvre as part of an Artist Portrait series, which includes chamber music at LSO St Luke’s.