Sir András Schiff performs and conducts Brahms and Haydn

Hired by the wealthy Esterházy family as a court musician, Haydn was so committed to the task at hand that he had the luxurious marble floor of their concert hall replaced with less resonant wood, all in the service of the best sound… And it's amid this historic and acoustically enhanced backdrop that the Chamber Orchestra of Europe gives another splendid concert with piano legend Sir András Schiff! They begin with the orchestral arrangement of Brahms's Haydn Variations in B-flat before moving on to one of Haydn's most unique works in the very same key, the Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Cello, Oboe, and Bassoon—a sublime showcase for the remarkable musicians of the COE. To bring the program to a grand conclusion, Schiff takes on the role of conductor and pianist in Brahms's monumental Piano Concerto No. 1, one of the first works that announced his compositional genius and augured the many great things to come.