Emanuel Ax Plays Beethoven

Legendary GRAMMY Award-winning pianist Emanuel Ax, Musical America’s 2026 “Artist of the Year,” returns to SPAC to perform one of Beethoven’s most iconic works alongside The Philadelphia Orchestra! Celebrated Italian conductor Daniele Rustioni, the newly appointed Principal Guest Conductor of The Metropolitan Opera, leads this captivating, can’t-miss performance following his SPAC debut the night before.  

The program opens with Beethoven’s exuberant and powerful Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”), the composer’s last concerto and a piece at the core of Ax’s repertoire. The second half of the program features Brahms’ Symphony No. 1, a dramatic and soaring work inspired by Beethoven’s Ninth, including the composer’s interpretation of the famous “Ode to Joy” theme.

Tickets go on sale to the public on Wednesday, March 25 at 10AM. ​

SPAC Member presale takes place March 16 through 24, tiered by membership level: ​

• President’s Circle, Premiere Patron, & Corporate Visionary:Monday, March 16 at 10AM​
• Golden Patron, Corporate Innovator, & Corporate Pioneer:Thursday, March 19 at 10AM​
• Patron, Corporate Leader, & Corporate Mentor:Monday, March 23 at 10AM
• Bravo & Encore:Monday, March 23 at 10AM​
• Applause & Ovation:Tuesday, March 24 at 10AM

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Not a member? Join today for presale access!

Please note: All e-tickets for The Philadelphia Orchestra will be sent one week prior to the performance date. Please contact the Box Office with any questions at 518-584-9330.

*Please note that web & phone ticket purchases will incur a $7 service fee; no fees are applied for in-person ticket purchases at our Box Office.

Premier Parking Upgrade Available! 

Premier parking is available as an optional upgrade! Limited spaces are available. Purchase at checkout for $20 and enjoy easy access to the Route 50 entry gate.  

Choose premier parking as an add-on during ticket checkout or purchase separately here 

General admission parking is free. 

This program is approximately 2 hours long, inclusive of one intermission. 

Daniele Rustioni, 42, is one of the most compelling conductors of his generation and is a major presence with the leading international symphony orchestras, opera houses and festivals. 

He is Principal Guest Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, Principal Guest Conductor Designate of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Music Director Emeritus of the Opéra National de Lyon, Music Director Laureate of the Ulster Orchestra, and Conductor Emeritus of the Orchestra della Toscana in Florence. 

Highlights of the 2025–2026 season include debuts with Orchestre National de France at the Philharmonie de Paris, The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Music Center, San Francisco Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Enescu Philharmonic at Romanian Athenaeum, Orchestra del Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, the Vienna State Opera with a new production of Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de perles, the Shanghai Grand Theater leading the Bavarian State Opera on tour with Verdi’s Otello, and the Herkulessaal der Münchner Residenz conducting Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos. He returns to the Pittsburgh Symphony, BBC Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Philharmonia Zürich, the Opernfestspiele at the Bavarian State Opera with Weber’s Der Freischütz, the Aix-en-Provence Festival with Verdi’s Les vêpres siciliennes and the Teatro alla Scala with a new production of Gounod’s Faust. In September 2025 he replaced Zubin Mehta in the inaugural concert of the Respighi Festival in Bologna with Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps and Respighi’s Fountains and Pines of Rome. 

Rustioni was born in Milan and began his career in 1993 as a member of Teatro alla Scala’s children’s chorus. He continued his studies at the Milan Conservatory “G.Verdi” (where he graduated in Organ, Piano, Composition and Orchestral Conducting), La Scala Academy (as a répétiteur), Sienna’s Accademia Musicale Chigiana (Diploma d’Onore in Conducting) and London’s Royal Academy of Music (AssociateRAM). He resides in London with his wife violinist Francesca Dego and their daughter. 

Born to Polish parents in what is today Lviv, Ukraine, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. Mr. Ax made his New York debut in the Young Concert Artists Series, and in 1974 won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. In 1975 he won the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists, followed by the Avery Fisher Prize. Emanuel Ax was recently named the 2026 Musical America Artist of the Year. The 2025/26 season begins with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Carnegie Hall and a tour to Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong. Following the world premiere at Tanglewood in summer 2025, the concerto written for him by John Williams will have its Boston Symphony subscription debut in January followed by the NY premiere with New York Philharmonic. He will return to orchestras in Dallas, St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Charleston, Madison, Naples and New Jersey. In recital he can be heard in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Santa Barbara, Des Moines, Cedar Falls, Schenectady and Princeton. A European tour will include concerts in Munich, Prague, Berlin, Rome and Torino. Mr. Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987. He launched a multi-year project with violinist Leonidas Kavakos and cellist Yo-Yo Ma to record all the Beethoven Trios and Symphonies of which the first four discs have been released. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary doctorates of music from Skidmore College, New England Conservatory of Music, Yale University, and Columbia University. 

Please note, only one discount is valid per ticket.

Thank You to Our 2026 Philadelphia Orchestra Sponsors

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