Pianist Jacopo Giacopuzzi has been praised for technical assurance that “astounds” with an “intuitive style that wins the audience,” critics noted.

WAILUKU – Maui Chamber Orchestra will present a powerful all-Beethoven program at the Iao Theater on Oct. 20-21 featuring guest pianist Jacopo Giacopuzzi of Verona, Italy and Santa Barbara, California.

Giacopuzzi trained at the Liszt Hochschule, International Piano Academy of Imola and the University of Southern California.

He will turn his formidable skills to the “Piano Concerto No. 5” (Op. 73) – the so-called “Emperor” – which proved to be the culmination and termination of Beethoven’s heroic phase.

For a contrast in affect, the orchestra will play Beethoven’s sunny and cheerful – and too rarely heard – “Symphony No. 4” (Op. 60).

So enamored was Hector Berlioz of this symphony’s second movement that he deemed it the work of the Archangel Michael and not that of a human.

The program opens with the “Overture from Egmont” (Op. 84), a set of incidental music written for Goethe’s 1787 play of the same name, which depicts heroic martyrdom in the face of political oppression.

Composed in 1809-10 during the Napoleonic Wars, Beethoven’s music not only matches the passion of the play but embodies his own political concerns about the dangers of empire.

Among many cultural uses since, the Overture served as the unofficial anthem of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956.

Performances take place at the Historic Iao Theater at 68 N. Market St. in Wailuku on Saturday, Oct. 20, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 21, at 5 p.m., preceded by “Talk Story with the Artists” at 3:30 p.m.

Tickets range from $27 to $55 and may be purchased at the ?Iao Theater Box Office (mauionstage.com, or 242-6969) and at mauichamberorchestra.org.