ALL BEETHOVEN SYMPHONIES
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony №5 in C minor, Op. 67 (1804-08)
1. Allegro con brio
2. Andante con moto
3. Allegro
4. Allegro
Written in 1084-1808, it is one of the most best-known, popular, and more frequently played pieces of symphony music. First performed in 1808 in Vienna, it achieved its prodigious reputation soon afterwards. That was the period of the highest blossom of Beethoven’s talent, witnessing a chain of the most famous compositions, filled at times with energy and epic struggle, such as Kreutzer Sonate, Aurora and Appassionata piano sonata, Fidelio Coriolanus, etc. The composer became reconciled with the incurable disease he had. Being 31, he wrote to his friend the lines that became his motto: 'I want to grasp fate by the throat, it should certainly not completely bend me - it is so good to live life a thousand times…'
Beethoven dedicated the Fifth Symphony to two of his patrons, Prince Franz Joseph von Lobkowitz and Count Razumovsky, a Russian diplomat, who spent many years of his life in Vienna. It was premiered in mammoth concert in so called academy on 22 December 1808 at the Theatre an der Vienna (Austria) with the Pastoral symphony. The Fifth symphony, a motif at its beginning in particular (also known as the Fate motif, or Fate theme), became so popular, that some of its elements were used in several compositions, both of classical and popular music, in movie, television, etc. It became one of the symbols of classical music.
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 (Pastoral Symphony, 1807-1808)
1. Allegro ma non troppo
2. Andante motlo mosso
3. Allegro
4. Allegro
5. Allegretto
The Sixth symphony falls on the central period of Beethoven’s creative work. Completed at the same time as the Fifth symphony in 1808, it differs much from the latter. Beethoven doesn’t fight with hostile fate, but glorifies the great power of the Nature and the sweets of life. It is also dedicated to Beethoven’s patrons, the Vienna philanthropist Prince Franz Joseph von Lobkowitz and Count Razumovsky, a Russian diplomat, who spent many years of his life in Vienna. As Beethoven used to say, 'No other person can ever love rural life as much as I, for the oak woods, trees, rocky mountains that echo with a man’s thoughts and feelings'. The Pastoral symphony, as the composer said it, depicts feelings that are born from coming in contact with the world of Nature and rural life, thus becoming one of his most romantic compositions.
Alexander Sladkovsky Conductor
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