Friday, January 13, 8.00pm
Saturday, January 14 3.00pm*
Sunday, January 15, 3.00pm
Symphony Hall

CLICK HERE for directions to Symphony Hall

Thrill to music’s most famous four-note theme! Also, enjoy Beethoven's Violin Concerto with Richard Tognetti on Friday and Sunday. On Saturday, author Thomas Forrest Kelly discusses Beethoven's life and the Fifth Symphony with live musical examples.

BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 5
BEETHOVEN: Violin Concerto (Friday and Sunday only)

Grant Llewellyn, conductor
Richard Tognetti, violin

Beethoven’s famous Fifth Symphony had its first performance as part of a massive benefit concert in 1808, but he began sketching ideas for the work at least four years before that. Its famous opening motif, traditionally thought of as “Fate knocking on the door,” seems to have been prompted by something else: according to his student Czerny, Beethoven claimed it was really a bird-song he heard in a Viennese park! This extraordinarily powerful work soon became famous throughout Europe , especially after an ecstatic review by E.T.A. Hoffman: “Beethoven opens up to us the world of the immense and the infinite... [The Fifth Symphony] is conceived with genius, carried out with profound thoughtfulness, and expresses in the highest degree the romantic spirit of music.” His Violin Concerto, Op. 61, was completed very rapidly in 1806, in a burst of creativity, and premiered that December by Franz Clement: the dedication reads “Concerto par Clemenza pour Clement.” In fact, a quality of “clemenza” or mercy is a striking aspect of this expansive work, whose melting lyricism has made it a favorite to this day.

For further information:
http://www.lucare.com/immortal/
A site with information on many aspects of Beethoven and his work: an overview of his his life, and detailed accounts of his daily routine, his deafness, and of course his compositions.

http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/beethoven_sym5.html
sound-files of the Fifth Symphony and a brief account of its premiere

http://www.lucare.com/immortal/fifth.html
The classic Romantic account of the great Fifth Symphony by E.T.A. Hoffman

http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/beethoven_violin_con.html
sound-files of the Violin Concerto and a good account of its composition and first performance