All About Beethoven

Tonight, world-renowned soloist Imogen Cooper will join the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall to perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The English pianist, who’s one of the most poetic interpreters of classical repertoire today, is sure to channel the virtuosic expertise of Beethoven himself, who was soloist in the 1798 premiere of this concerto. Jane Glover, music director of Chicago’s Music of the Baroque and director of opera at the Royal Academy of Music in London, will conduct the orchestra as it plays two rarely performed classical works, C. P. E. Bach’s Sinfonia No. 2 in E-flat major and Jan Krtitel Vanhal’s Sinfonia in G minor. Symphony No. 103, nicknamed the Drum Roll Symphony, one of Franz Joseph Haydn’s most popular works, will end tonight’s program at Severance. The concert begins at 7:30 and repeats on Saturday night at 8. Tickets start at $31. (Eric Gonzalez)