The missing link. Hannes Minnaar’s release of the beginning and end phases (numbers 1 & 2 and 4 & 5 respectively) of Beethoven’s piano concertos is now ‘followed’ by No. 3. It forms a link in another sense as well. The first concertos: replete with youth, sparkling, often even rambunctious; the last two both more mature and more heroic. And Piano Concerto No. 3 then? In part still building on his youth (Beethoven was around 30 when he wrote it), this is the first one where we hear heroism. Might has become the central theme.