A Weekend With Beethoven

SSO subscription concert

A Weekend with Beethoven 24 & 25 FEB 2017 FRI & SAT | Victoria concert hall Home of the SSO

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LAN SHUI Music Director

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Singapore AIRLINES

Dear Friends, It is with great pleasure that Singapore Airlines partners the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) in presenting A Weekend with Beethoven – a highly anticipated performance.

Since its inception in 1979, the SSO has firmly established itself as one of Singapore’s premier performing arts and cultural institutions. As a premier Asian orchestra gaining recognition around the world, the SSO has endeavoured to cultivate artistic excellence and develop a mastery over divergent styles of musical traditions.

Tonight, we are in good company with esteemed conductor Yu Long and 12-year-old piano prodigy Serena Wang, coming together to bring to life the work of Beethoven – one of the greatest composers of all time.

With Beethoven’s beautifully written music, together with the SSO musicians, we are sure that tonight’s performance will be a treat. We wish all of you a very memorable and enjoyable musical journey this evening. Thank you.

Singapore Airlines Limited

24 & 25 FEB 2017 | FRI & SAT

A Weekend with Beethoven Singapore Symphony Orchestra Yu Long, conductor

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Egmont: Overture, Op. 84a 9’00 Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15 36’00 1. Allegro con brio 2. Largo 3. Rondo: Allegro scherzando Serena Wang, piano

Intermission 20’00

Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 36’00 1. Poco sostenuto – Vivace 2. Allegretto 3. Presto – Trio: Assai meno presto 4. Allegro con brio

Concert duration: 1 hr 55 mins All timings indicated are approximate.

Planning a night out at the SSO? You can now read our programme notes on www.sso.org.sg three days before a concert.

Singapore Symphony Orchestra Since its founding in 1979, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) has been Singapore’s flagship orchestra, touching lives through classical music and providing the heartbeat of the cultural scene in the cosmopolitan city-state.

In addition to its subscription series concerts, the orchestra is well-loved for its outdoor and community appearances, and its significant role educating the young people of Singapore. The SSO has also earned an international reputation for its orchestral virtuosity, having garnered sterling reviews for its overseas tours and many successful recordings.

The SSO makes its performing home at the 1,800-seat state-of-the-art Esplanade Concert Hall. More intimate works and all outreach and community performances take place at the 673-seat Victoria Concert Hall, the home of the SSO. The orchestra performs 100 concerts a year, and its versatile repertoire spans all-time favourites and orchestral masterpieces to exciting cutting-edge premieres. Bridging the musical traditions of East and West, Singaporean and Asian musicians and composers are regularly showcased in the concert season.

This has been a core of the SSO's programming philosophy from the very beginning under Choo Hoey, who was Music Director from 1979 to 1996.

Since Lan Shui assumed the position of Music Director in 1997, the SSO has performed in Europe, Asia and the United States. In May 2016 the SSO was invited to perform at the Dresden Music Festival and the Prague Spring International Music Festival. This successful five-city tour of Germany and Prague also included the SSO’s return to the Berlin Philharmonie after six years.

In 2014 the SSO’s debut at the 120th BBC Proms in London received critical acclaim in the major UK newspapers The Guardian and Telegraph. The SSO has also performed in China on multiple occasions.

Notable SSO releases under BIS include a Rachmaninov series, a Debussy disc, Seascapes featuring sea-themed music by Debussy, Frank Bridge, Glazunov and Zhou Long, and the first-ever cycle of Tcherepnin’s piano concertos and symphonies. The SSO has also collaborated with such great artists as Lorin Maazel, Charles Dutoit, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Neeme Järvi, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos and Gil Shaham.

“The brilliantly chiselled strings unite in moderate tempos to produce a brilliant, virtuoso and sensuous sound performance from this outstanding orchestra.”

Der Neue Merker

Yu Long

conductor

The preeminent Chinese conductor with an established international reputation, Yu Long is currently Artistic Director of the Beijing Music Festival and the China Philharmonic Orchestra, Music Director of the Shanghai and Guangzhou Symphony Orchestras, the Co-Director of MISA Shanghai Summer Festival, and the Principal Guest Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

Yu Long frequently conducts the leading orchestras and opera companies around the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg State Opera, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester Leipzig, NDR Sinfonieorchester, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic and Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

In 2014, Yu Long and the China Philharmonic became the first Chinese conductor and the first Chinese orchestra to play at the BBC Proms Series with a televised performance at the Royal Albert Hall. In 2008, for the first time in history, a Chinese orchestra performed at the Vatican under Yu Long’s baton.

Pope Benedict XIV attended the performance in the Paul VI Auditorium and praised it as a big step in promoting co-operation between the East and West.

Yu Long is a Chevalier dans L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the recipient of the 2002 Arts Patronage Award of the Montblanc Cultural Foundation.

Yu Long was honoured with the title of L’onorificenza di commendatore in 2005. In December 2014, he was awarded France’s highest honour of merit by joining la Légion d’Honneur. In October 2015, Yu Long received the Sanford Medal presented by Yale University’s College of Music and the Global Citizen Award by the Atlantic Council. In April 2016, Yu Long was elected as a Foreign

Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In June 2016, he was an award receipt of The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Leading the development of orchestral landscape in China, Yu Long has created the nation’s first orchestral academy as a partnership between Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Conservatory and the New York Philharmonic. In 2014 the New York Philharmonic named Yu Long an honorary member of its International Advisory Board.

SERENA WANG

piano

In June 2015, 10-year-old prodigy Serena Wang performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra under the baton of 80-year-old celebrated conductor Zubin Mehta, who highly praised Wang and was astonished by her musical talent. In August 2015, Wang was invited to play Beethoven’s Choral Fantasia in C minor with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Yu Long in the General Assembly of the United Nations in a musical celebration to mark the 70th Anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations.

Born in October 2004, Wang started her piano lessons with Sumi Nagasama when she was 4. In 2010, 5-year-old Wang became the youngest prize winner for her outstanding performance in the Bach Piano Competition held by the University of California, Berkeley. In the same year, she obtained First Prize in the North California Chinese Music Teachers’ Society Piano Competition. In July 2010, Wang took part in the Second National Youth Piano Competition at Gulangyu Island, Xiamen and her performance not only won the Golden Prize in the Children’s Group but also garnered praises from judges and experts. Since September 2010, she has been studying with renowned piano educationist Dan Zhaoyi.

Wang was invited to participate in the First Youth Spring Festival Gala held by the Chengdu Television Station in February 2011. In the same year, she played in a special concert in Hangzhou and Chongqing to celebrate International Children’s Day. Wang was also honoured to be featured in a book titled Dan Zhaoyi, a Piano Educationist Who Taught World Champions and joined in national tour concerts of Dan Zhaoyi’s award-winning students. In addition, Wang performed at the China National Centre for the Performing Arts, accompanied by the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, which was undoubtedly an important milestone in her musical journey.

Wang has given solo recitals in Chengdu, Yichang and Shenzhen and worked with orchestras such as the China Philharmonic, Guangzhou Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, Mexico Youth Symphony and Vancouver Symphony among others. She has also played under the baton of conductors like Yu Long, Zhang Guoyong, Yang Yang, Zhang Jiemin and many others. Wang has performed in venues such as the Forbidden City Concert Hall, Tsinghua and Peking Universities, Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver, Kulturcasino Bern and St. Gallen Tonhalle in Switzerland and many more.

In June 2014, Wang was invited to perform as guest soloist in the opening gala of the Third Shenzhen International Piano Concerto Competition. In the same year, she represented China in an exchange programme with the Central Music School, Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and performed at the China – Russia Young Talents Joint Concert at the State Kremlin Palace.

In April 2014, Wang released her first recording Dances of the Dolls under the Channel Classics label. The critically-acclaimed album featured works of Tan Dun, Dan Zhaoyi, Mozart, Chopin, Liszt, Poulenc, Shostakovich and more.

SSO Musicians Lan Shui

Jason Lai

Joshua Tan

Choo Hoey

Okko Kamu

Lim Yau

MUSIC DIRECTOR

ASSOCIATE CONDUCTOR

ASSOCIATE CONDUCTOR

CONDUCTOR EMERITUS

PRINCIPAL GUEST CONDUCTOR

Choral Director

FIRST VIOLIN concertmaster Igor Yuzefovich°

Ye Lin* Yeo Teow Meng Yin Shu Zhan* Zhang Si Jing*

CO-CONCERTMASTER Lynnette Seah

ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER Kong Zhao Hui*

FIXED CHAIR Chan Yoong-Han Cao Can* Chen Da Wei Duan Yu Ling Foo Say Ming Gu Wen Li Jin Li Cindy Lee Sui Jing Jing Karen Tan William Tan Wei Zhe

SECOND VIOLIN ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL Michael Loh

FIXED CHAIR Hai-Won Kwok Nikolai Koval* Priscilla Neo Chikako Sasaki* Margit Saur Shao Tao Tao Lillian Wang Wu Man Yun* Xu Jue Yi*

DOUBLE BASS PRINCIPAL Guennadi Mouzyka

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

VIOLA PRINCIPAL Zhang Manchin

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL Guan Qi

FIXED CHAIR Gu Bing Jie* Marietta Ku Luo Biao Shui Bing Tan Wee-Hsin Tong Yi Ping Janice Tsai^ Yang Shi Li

CELLO PRINCIPAL Ng Pei-Sian

Yang Zheng Yi

FIXED CHAIR Karen Yeo Olga Alexandrova Ma Li Ming Jacek Mirucki Wang Xu

FLUTE PRINCIPAL Jin Ta

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL Evgueni Brokmiller Roberto Alvarez Miao Shanshan

PICCOLO ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Roberto Alvarez

Yu Jing

FIXED CHAIR Guo Hao Chan Wei Shing Song Woon Teng Wang Yan Wang Zihao* Peter Wilson Wu Dai Dai Zhao Yu Er

OBOE PRINCIPAL Rachel Walker

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL Pan Yun Carolyn Hollier Elaine Yeo

COR ANGLAIS

HORN

BASS TROMBONE

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

PRINCIPAL

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL

Elaine Yeo

Han Chang Chou

Wang Wei

CLARINET PRINCIPAL Ma Yue

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL Li Xin Liu Yoko Tang Xiao Ping

BASS CLARINET ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL Tang Xiao Ping

BASSOON PRINCIPAL Zhang Jin Min

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL Liu Chang Christoph Wichert Zhao Ying Xue

CONTRA BASSOON ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL Zhao Ying Xue

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL Gao Jian Jamie Hersch Marc-Antoine Robillard Kartik Alan Jairamin

TUBA PRINCIPAL Hidehiro Fujita

TIMPANI PRINCIPAL

TRUMPET PRINCIPAL

Christian Schiøler

Jon Paul Dante

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

Jonathan Fox

David Smith

PERCUSSION

Lertkiat Chongjirajitra^ Sergey Tyuteykin

PRINCIPAL

TROMBONE

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

PRINCIPAL Allen Meek

ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL Damian Patti Samuel Armstrong

Jonathan Fox

Mark Suter Mark De Souza Lim Meng Keh Zhu Zheng Yi

HARP PRINCIPAL Gulnara Mashurova

* With deep appreciation to the Rin Collection for their generous loan of string instruments. ° Igor Yuzefovich plays an instrument generously loaned by Mr & Mrs G K Goh ^ Musician on temporary contract

Musicians listed alphabetically by family name rotate their seats on a per programme basis.

Musicians’ Chair The Singapore Symphony Orchestra thanks the following organisations for supporting our Musicians’ Chair Programme. The programme supports artistic excellence initiatives in the orchestra’s annual operations.

Principal Cello

Ng Pei-Sian

PrincipAL Double Bass

FIXED CHAIR, Cello

Guennadi Mouzyka

Guo Hao

CORPORATE SEATS The Singapore Symphony Orchestra appreciates the support of companies in our Corporate Seats scheme. The scheme supports the Orchestra through regular attendance of subscription concerts. $20,000 and above Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore (Pte) Ltd Japanese Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Singapore $10,000 and above Hong Leong Foundation Stephen Riady Group of Foundations Nomura Asset Management Singapore Ltd Prima Limited

1979 FUND The Singapore Symphony Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the following corporations and individuals for their contributions towards the 1979 Fund.

The 1979 Fund is a campaign for contribution to the SSO Endowment Fund.

Allen & Gledhill LLP Stephen Riady Group of Foundations United Overseas Bank Limited Mrs Odile Benjamin Ms Cham Gee Len Prof Cham Tao Soon Mr Chng Hak-Peng Mr Chng Kai Jin Mr Goh Yew Lin Mr Khoo Boon Hui Prof Tommy Koh Ms Liew Wei Li Prof Arnoud De Meyer Mr S R Nathan Mr Andreas Sohmen-Pao Dr Tan Chin Nam Ms Tan Choo Leng Mr Wong Nang Jang Prof Chan Heng Chee Anonymous For more information or to make a donation, please contact the Development & Sponsorship Team at 6602 4218 or anthony@sso.org.sg.

U P COM ING CONCERT S

4 MARCH 17 | SAT, 7.30pm esplanade Concert Hall

Ibert Flute Concerto • Shostakovich 5 Yu Long conductor Jin Ta flute A prince is under a curse and falls in love with three giant oranges, of which one contains his true love. Live the fantasy in Prokofiev’s scintillating opera The Love for Three Oranges through his six-movement Suite. Hear the flute sing and leap in the magical Flute Concerto by Jacques Ibert, featuring SSO Principal Flautist Jin Ta. Yu Long closes a brilliant evening with ‘a true Soviet masterpiece’, Shostakovich’s Fifth.

“The music, I fear, is too much for this generation.” – The Chicago Tribune on Prokofiev’s opera The Love for Three Oranges

PROKOFIEV The Love for Three Oranges: Suite, Op. 33a IBERT Flute Concerto SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47

Pre-concert Talk 6.30pm-7pm I library@esplanade

ESPLANADE Concert Hall

Petrushka • Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 Okko Kamu conductor Nikolai Lugansky piano A puppet comes to life and falls in love with a ballerina in Stravinsky’s Petrushka, a colourful masterpiece filled with gorgeous Russian folk melodies. Expect grandiose and wild passion as Nikolai Lugansky returns to play Brahms’ First Piano Concerto.

“His performances dig so deeply into the substance beneath the surface.” – The Daily Telegraph on Nikolai Lugansky

STRAVINSKY Petrushka (1947 version) BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15

Pre-concert Talk 6.30pm-7pm I library@esplanade

U P COM ING CONCERT S

24 MARCH 17 | fri, 7.30pm

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LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

Egmont: Overture, Op. 84a

9’00

By 1809, Napoleon controlled much of Europe, including Vienna, Beethoven’s adopted city since 1794. Following the departure of Napoleon’s troops from Vienna in October that year, strictures imposed by the Austrian Emperor on theatre performances were relaxed. The Director of the Hoftheater, Joseph Hartl, immediately arranged to produce two plays hitherto banned, Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell and Goethe’s Egmont, the latter completed in 1787 and first performed in 1789. Beethoven would have preferred to write music to accompany Wilhelm Tell (this assignment went to Adalbert Gyrowetz), but he was asked to contribute to the Egmont production instead. Still, he responded enthusiastically, for not only was Goethe one of his three favourite authors (Schiller and Homer were the other two), but Egmont embodied virtually all the themes and principles which Beethoven cherished most: freedom, courage, brotherly love, defiance of tyranny, and heroic struggle. Out of respect for Goethe, he accepted no payment from the theatre.

Beethoven provided two songs, four entr’actes, music for the death scene of the heroine, a melodrama (music to accompany declaimed speech) and a final “Victory Symphony”. The last number to be composed was the Overture. The first complete performance with all the music in conjunction with the stage production took place at the Hoftheater on 15 June 1810. The play had already been given three weeks earlier, on 24 May, probably incorporating some of Beethoven’s music, but certainly not the Overture, which was written only in June.

The Overture’s slow introduction begins with a solemn pronouncement in big blocks of rich orchestral sound, alternating with gentle, comforting tones of the woodwinds. This gesture of opposites can be regarded as the synthesis of the whole play, with its alternating moods of oppression and supplication.

The main Allegro section is infused with high drama, surging passions and a pervasive restlessness, all of which Beethoven conveys vividly in abstract aural terms. But for a full understanding of the significance of its joyous conclusion, we must go back to Goethe.

The events of the play are set against the background of the Dutch struggle for political independence from Spain in the sixteenth century. Phillip II of Spain had sent the notorious Duke of Alba to subdue the restless Dutch. The popular hero and freedom fighter Count Lamoral van Egmont was one of Alba’s first targets. Egmont was imprisoned and sentenced to death for alleged treason.

In the grey light of dawn before his execution on 5 June 1568, Egmont dreams of his beloved Clara, who appears before him as the Goddess of Freedom, proclaiming that his death will spur the populace to overthrow the Spanish tyrants. She places a laurel wreath of victory on his head and vanishes. A drum roll wakens Egmont; he is led to his execution, but with head held high and with renewed spiritual strength, he sounds the call to arms in a stirring, inflammatory oration that concludes: “Stride forth, brave people! The goddess of victory leads you on. Like the sea bursting through your dikes, you must burst and overwhelm the ramparts of tyranny, drown it, and sweep it from the land it has usurped ... Friends, take heart! Behind you are your parents, your wives, your children! ... Guard your sacred heritage! And to defend all you hold most dear, fall joyful, as I do before you now!” Beethoven responded to Goethe’s poetic metaphor of the bursting dike with a musical equivalent that begins softly, quivering excitedly and growing irresistibly stronger until the music fairly explodes in a powerful surge of joy, jubilation and exaltation.

Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15

36’00

Beethoven made his first venture into the concerto genre in 1784 at the age of 14, with a Piano Concerto in E-flat (WoO 4), which survives as a complete solo part with piano reduction of the orchestral preludes and interludes. His first completed piano concerto was the one we now call No. 2 in B-flat, written in 1795, but due to order of publication, the Concerto in C major was called No. 1. Beethoven himself, known at the time more as a pianist than as a composer, gave its first performance, probably in Prague in 1798 (history is sketchy on this point; some sources indicate the premiere took place in 1795).

Already possessing the magnetic personality that riveted attention at every performance, he was described by the contemporary Czech composer Václav Tomášek, who attended the Concerto’s premiere, as follows: “His magnificent playing and particularly the daring flights in his improvisation stirred me to the depths of my soul; indeed, I found myself so profoundly shaken that for several days I could not bring myself to touch the piano.”

The Concerto in C major is a Janus-faced work, looking both backwards to the Classical era and forward to the Romantic. Compared to the Concerto in B-flat (written earlier, remember), it is a bigger work – larger in scale, fuller in its sonorities and broader in emotional range. The score calls for additional instruments absent in the B-flat Concerto – pairs of clarinets, trumpets and timpani – and contains the longest slow movement of any Beethoven piano concerto. At the same time, Beethoven adheres to the Mozartian principle of the soloist as primus inter pares (first among equals) in its relation with the orchestra – a balanced opposition of forces (in contradistinction to soloist and accompaniment).

The Concerto opens quietly with the first movement’s main theme, which corresponds closely to biographer Alfred Einstein’s characterisation of the “ideal march” in the opening movements of Mozart’s piano concertos. Soon this is expanded to presentation in full orchestral garb, its grandeur revealing a composer already straining at the shackles of classicism. A contrasting, lyrical theme soon presents itself in the violins, but this too has its unorthodox element, for it is heard sequentially in three different keys (E-flat major, F minor, G minor), none of them the tonic key of C major that a more traditional composer would almost certainly have employed here. An additional idea in the form of a military fanfare for horns, trumpets and drums brings the orchestral exposition to a close. The broad range of contrasts found in this exposition serves as the catalyst for a wide-ranging drama that now unfolds.

Among the more memorable events are the sunny, smiling manner in which the soloist gently makes his entrance and the tension-laden dialogue for horns and piano leading into the recapitulation.

The second movement explores a mood of sustained expressiveness and emotional depth. The principal theme is a Beethoven trademark – a bare,

simple, but sublimely beautiful hymn-like melody. The key is A-flat major, the key Beethoven used also for the slow movement of the Pathétique Sonata, written about the same time. Beethoven proceeds to decorate this theme with the finest pianistic filigree.

The rollicking third movement, a rondo, is full of folk-like melodies, rhythmic syncopations, irregular phrases and other musical surprises, including an episode of “Turkish” music in A minor.

Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92

36’00

Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony received its premiere at a gala benefit concert for wounded soldiers on 8 December 1813 in the Great Hall of the University of Vienna. This was the same concert at which Beethoven’s patriotic effusion Wellington’s Victory (or the “Battle” Symphony) was introduced, amidst wild excitement and special effects (cannonades, mechanical trumpets, etc.).

Through the patriotic and charitable appeal of his cause, Johann Nepomuk Maelzel (inventor of the metronome), organiser of the event, was able to secure the services of many of Europe’s musical luminaries, including Salieri, Spohr, Moscheles, Hummel, Meyerbeer, Romberg and Dragonetti. According to Beethoven’s biographer Alexander Thayer, these notable musicians regarded the whole thing as “a stupendous musical joke”, and engaged in it con amore, as in a gigantic professional frolic. The Symphony was considered a mere “companion piece” to the real showstopper, Wellington’s Victory. Yet, in spite of this circusy atmosphere, the Symphony was well received. In fact, the second movement was encored, an unprecedented occasion for a “slow” movement.

Unlike the Sixth Symphony, in which the composer had deliberately incorporated the expression of feelings of nature, Beethoven attached no “meanings” to the Seventh beyond the sounds themselves. Wagner accurately described the essence of the music by dubbing it “the Apotheosis of the Dance”, though it is doubtful he expected it actually to be choreographed, as has been done on several occasions.

The introduction to the first movement is the longest such passage Beethoven, or anyone else up to that time, had ever written for a symphony, amounting almost to a whole movement in itself, and lasting a third of the movement’s length of approximately twelve minutes. In addition to having its own pair of themes, the introduction defines the harmonic regions that will have reverberations throughout the rest of the symphony. The tonic key of A major is emphatically established in the opening “call to attention”; excursions then follow to C major (the lyrical oboe theme that arrives after the succession of rising scales in the strings) and F major (the lyrical theme later in the flute). So important to the symphony’s grand structural design are these three keys that Robert Simpson has deemed them “more like dimensions than keys”.

The transition to the movement’s main vivace section is scarcely less imaginative and extraordinary, consisting as it does of 61 repetitions of the same note (E) to varied rhythms; these eventually settle into the rhythmic pattern that pervades the entire vivace. From here Beethoven propels us through a sonata-form movement of enormous energy, bold harmonic changes, startling alternation of loud and soft, and obsessive rhythmic activity.

The second movement (Allegretto) is hardly a “slow” one, but it is more restrained and soothing than the frenetic first movement. Again, an underlying rhythmic pattern pervades. The virtually melody-less principal subject in A minor is heard in constantly changing orchestral garb. There is also a lyrical episode of surpassing beauty in A major (woodwinds) and a stormy fugato built from the principal theme.

The third movement is a double scherzo and trio in F major (one of the harmonic pillars of the symphony). The slower trio section, with its accordionlike swells and strange low growls from the second horn, is believed by some to have been based on an old Austrian pilgrims’ hymn. Following the customary scherzo-trio-scherzo format, the trio is presented complete a second time, and then the complete scherzo again. With characteristic humour, Beethoven threatens to present the trio still a third time (“What, again?” is the expected reaction from the listener), but suddenly he dismisses it with five brusque chords from the full orchestra, and we are ready for the next movement.

The whirlwind finale, like the previous movements, is built from a single rhythmic cell. The Dionysian energy that infuses this movement has caused many listeners, in the words of musicologist Klaus G. Roy, to “come away from a hearing of this symphony in a state of being punch-drunk. Yet it is an intoxication without a hangover, a dope-like exhilaration without decadence�.

Programme notes by Robert Markow

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