Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
Part of: Sir John Eliot Gardiner Perspectives and Beethoven Celebration
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Partner events on February 7 and February 27 explore the instruments featured in this concert.
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique is also performing February 19, February 20, February 23, and February 24.
Sir John Eliot Gardiner is also performing February 18, February 19, February 20, February 23, and February 24.
Performers
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique
Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Artistic Director and Conductor
Program
ALL-BEETHOVEN PROGRAMSymphony No. 4
Symphony No. 5
Event Duration
The printed program will last approximately 90 minutes, including one 20-minute intermission.
At a Glance
This concert is a study in contrast. Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony is one of his most refined and symmetrical, free from the angst and turmoil in his next symphony. Especially notable are the exquisite musical joke at the beginning, the elegant slow movement, and the buzzing finale. The Fifth, on the other hand, is a fiercely revolutionary work that, like the “Eroica,” has changed the way we think about music. Thousands of people have been moved by the representation of “Fate knocking at the door” and by the “program” of Beethoven’s defiant struggle against deafness, despair, and fantasies of suicide. It is remarkable how much excitement and sense of occasion the Fifth still evokes in a go-for-broke performance. Like a Bach fugue or a Schubert song, it communicates something basic and fundamental, a sense that Western music would not have been the same without it. Paradoxically, it is most famous for its economy achieved by Beethoven’s technique of having the opening four notes generate both the first movement and significant chunks of the succeeding ones. Equally stark and unadorned is the work’s single-minded emphasis on rhythm. Indeed, the relentless pulse on the Fifth launched a revolution in rhythm, one carried forward in the Seventh, presented in the next concert in this series.