The libretto of the ballet “The Creatures of Prometheus,” for which Beethoven wrote the ouverture, has unfortunately been lost. Contemporary reviews indicate that it dealt with the efforts of the titan Prometheus to bring progress to humanity—through the gift of fire, as well as through science and art.

The piece will be followed by Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto. His hearing was deteriorating, so he was unable to perform himself at its public premiere in 1812, as he had done with its four predecessors. As a “symphonic piano concerto,” it had a major influence on the further development of the genre, right up to Johannes Brahms. The renowned French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard makes his debut with the Konzerthausorchester under the baton of Honorary Conductor Iván Fischer.

There is no hint whatsoever in Robert Schumann’s Third Symphony of the fact that, on Rose Monday in 1854, the composer would attempt to take his own life by drowning in the Rhine. He was suffering from a severe mental illness at that time. The Third, however, was composed during his first happy months as music director in Düsseldorf in late 1850. He praised “the cheerful, easygoing nature” of the Rhinelanders and their “fresh artistic spirit,” and felt at home there. This mood can be clearly discerned in his symphonic tribute to the Rhine and the Rhineland, if one chooses to see it.