Doves and crocodiles

The young Beethoven had it clear. When he arrived in Vienna his intention was that the audience succumb to his art. He did this firstly as a pianist, a genius able to improvise as no one else until that moment. However, the real outcry came with his compositions. Each premiere showed the world how the likes of this man from Bonn had never been seen before. As a critic of that time wrote, he was a revolutionary whose music sounded “as if doves and crocodiles had been locked up together”

Symphony No. 6 and Symphony No. 5 premiered (in this order) in 1808. It was one of those endless concerts, typical of the period, and included, among many other works, his Piano Concerto No. 4. Though nearly routine for our ears today, what would the impact on the audience have been then? Is it possible to bring back the astonishment that Beethoven’s music provoked among his contemporaries?

For decades, the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, under conductor Philippe Herreweghe, has taken us out of our comfort zone. Each milestone in its repertoire is an allegation against conformity, a call to reconsider that which we have heard so many times. Historicist rigour, high doses of imagination, a sound of its own that is recognizable. The old Beethoven will surprise us again.

Programme
Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 6 in F major, op.68 ‘Pastoral’
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor, op.67