Irrelevant to us? Not a bit of it. For the exciting “Concerto no. 3 in C minor”, which Willems will perform this month during a rare visit to Canberra, belongs to a period when the composer was inspired by ideals of progress and freedom personified by Napoleon.

“From now on, I am taking a new path,” Beethoven wrote of this concerto, and Willems tell me how it marks a radical turning point for him, separating him from Mozart and other classical predecessors and becoming, in the pianist’s words, “unmistakably Beethovenian”.

Take Part II, the Largo movement, which Willems describes as “lovely, with tender moments”. You can pretty well hear Beethoven experimenting with the soft pedal of that newish instrument, the piano.

But his radical optimism would not last. When Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor in 1804, the composer was frankly disgusted.

“As far as Beethoven was concerned, he’d lost the plot… truly, Beethoven believed in the democratic way of life,” Willems says.

And he should know. His recordings for the ABC Classics label of Beethoven’s complete sonatas and the complete piano concertos have made him one of the world’s leading Beethoven experts.

A piano lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium, he sets a cracking pace as a role model for his students.

“It’s a job that suits me very well… I like being with young people… putting them on track for their future careers,” he says.

Willems’ role has not been confined to the concert platform. “I’ve done a lot of work with The Australian Ballet, performing solo for Nureyev, Fonteyn and Baryshnikov,” he says. His recent international touring program has been breathtaking.

A post-war immigrant, Willems arrived here at age 12. He tries to get to the Netherlands every year, as he remembers the “very rich cultural life” there, yet his heart is in Australia, he says.

Gerard Willems will be the featured artist in the opening concert of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra’s 2012 Llewellyn Series, in which artistic director Nicholas Milton will also conduct Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique” and Beethoven’s 1810 “Egmont Overture”.

The First Llewellyn Series Concert, Llewellyn Hall, 7.30pm March 28 and 29. Free pre-concert talk at 6.45pm. Bookings to 1300 795012 or www.ticketek.com.au