A famous Beethoven work and a Reicha premiere in the hands of exceptionalperformers. Just like the well-known drama of Beethoven's life, the biography of AntonReicha would also make an exciting film, but this recording mainly shows usthe friendship of the two great composers at the turn of the 18th and 19thcenturies. They were born the same year, and from their first encounter as15-year-olds in the Bonn court orchestra, they became close friends. Theystudied together at the university in Bonn, and they both became friendsof Haydn. Their music also shared similarities mainly during Reicha's periodin Vienna. It was while Reicha was in Vienna that he wrote his only pianoconcerto and that Beethoven wrote his fifth and most famous work inthe genre. Both concertos are in the "heroic" key of E flat major. WhileBeethoven's "Emperor Concerto" is a mainstay of the piano literature, thisis the first complete recording of Reicha's concerto. Missing pages fromthe solo part were first discovered in 2018. Jan Bartos is a highly acclaimedinterpreter of Beethoven, and here he is following in the tradition of histeachers Ivan Moravec and Alfred Brendl. The wonderful playing of the ViennaSymphony Orchestra, which has Beethoven's blood in it's veins, gives the liverecording from the Prague Spring Festival the hallmark of authenticity. Playingthe meticulously detailed accompaniment in the studio recording of Reicha'sconcerto is the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. Bartos's partner at thehelm of both orchestras is Petr Popelka, today undisputedly a world-classconductor who has the rare ability to breathe meaning and life into everynote. The friends Beethoven and Reicha are symbolically reunited after morethan two centuries on a single album in special musical company.