Pianist Antonio di Cristofano says “one must enter into the mind of Beethoven” when playing his music, which is what he will do when he performs the Piano Concerto No. 5, the “Emperor Concerto” with the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra this weekend. The Italian piano soloist joined Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin in a wide-ranging conversation about Beethoven’s monumental concerto, Di Cristofano’s teacher, the late Antonio Bacchelli, his strong interest in the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, and some of the differences in the training of pianists in Russia and Italy. Recorded December 5, 2014.