Two old friends take to the stage with Beethoven

Long-time friends and colleagues, conductor Marianna Gabbi and pianist William Leland, will reunite on stage this weekend, when Leland – who taught piano at NMSU for decades and now lives in Oregon – returns to Las Cruces to perform with the New Horizons Orchestra. The program features the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4, written when Beethoven was already growing quite deaf, which Gabbi describes as “an incredible concerto” whose great depth stems from Beethoven’s suffering. She came to KRWG to talk with Intermezzo host Leora Zeitlin about the works by Beethoven and Schubert that she will conduct, and her long friendship with Leland.