In the bicentenary year of Beethoven’s death, three works in this programme offer a journey through different stages of his creative life. The Choral Fantasy, one of the composer’s most distinctive creations, brings together piano, soloists, chorus and orchestra and already contains an idea that would attain universal significance years later in the Ninth Symphony: the coming together of voices and orchestra in a great choral finale. The Mass in C major reveals Beethoven as a composer of sacred music, in a work often regarded as the “younger sister” of the monumental Missa solemnis.

The Triple Concerto reveals yet another side of the composer and brings together three exceptional soloists: violinist Isabelle Faust, cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras and pianist András Schiff. Here Beethoven transforms the concerto form into a three-way dialogue between the soloists and the orchestra, in a majestic work that finds outstanding interpreters in this trio of stars.

Completing an exceptional line-up is John Eliot Gardiner, one of the most highly regarded conductors of Classical and Romantic repertoire and an artist with a long and successful relationship with the Palau de la Música Catalana. At the helm of The Constellation Choir & Orchestra, his recently founded ensembles, Gardiner presents Beethoven from three different perspectives: concertante, symphonic-choral and sacred, in a programme of particular significance within the commemoration of the composer.