Symphony No. 5 (Ludwig van Beethoven)
Program Notes
Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven, arranged by Ian Deterling.
Ludwig van Beethoven’s (1770-1827) nine symphonies are among his greatest works and considered by many to be among the greatest orchestral compositions in the history of music. His Symphony No. 5 is perhaps his most frequently played symphony and was written between 1804 and 1808. Symphony No. 5 was premiered in December of 1808 under adverse conditions; the auditorium was extremely cold, the orchestra had only one rehearsal before the concert, and the audience was exhausted by the length of the program (this concert also included the premiere of his Symphony No. 6, his Fourth Piano Concerto, and his C major Mass). The symphony opens with the instantly recognizable four-note motif in C Minor. This first movement, Allegro con brio, is in traditional sonata form (the development and recapitulation sections have been edited out in this arrangement to keep the performance time under five minutes). The exposition ends in the key of Eb Major and repeats. The Coda returns us to the key of C Minor where new melodic material is heard in addition to the four-note motif. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 is a cornerstone of western music and has gone on to inspire work by other wonderfully skilled composers - from Brahms to Tchaikovsky - and from Berlioz to Mahler.