Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 sets the stage emphatically.

Byline: Mary Kunz Goldman

Jul. 16--LEWISTON -- Looking back on Sunday's Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Beethoven program at Artpark, it was so exciting you almost can't call it a concert. It was more like a two-pronged attack, beginning with the Piano Concerto No. 1 in C and ending with the Ninth Symphony.

You'd think that the piano concerto, an early work we don't hear that often, would have been dwarfed by the mighty Ninth. That wasn't the case. It says something for pianist Sara Buechner, not to mention the BPO and Resident Conductor Robert Franz, that the concerto turned into such a sleeper hit.

You can never tell by looking at a soloist what …