Commonly known in English-speaking countries as “The Emperor”, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 was first heard publicly in Leipzig in 1811 and quickly established itself as a true classic. This performance by the Vienna Philharmonic, recorded almost two centuries later, houses all of its powerful nobility and grandeur. The martial outer movements, with an impressive and commanding rhetoric, enclose one of Beethoven’s most sublime slow movements, a glorious meditation in which time almost stands still. The late American composer Leonard Bernstein and the great Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman, who were close musical partners, engage superbly with “The Emperor”, bringing the most imaginative elements of one of Beethoven’s great works to the fore.