This concert is part of the following series:
Autumn-Winter 2008/09
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony ranks alongside the Eroica and the Choral symphonies as one of his most revolutionary works. Its première took place as part of a mammoth four-and-a-half hour concert in the freezing cold Theater am dem Wien in 1808; the conditions were so adverse that the symphony was almost completely overlooked, until it was rediscovered 18 months later when the writer ETA Hoffmann declared it ‘one of the most important works of the time’. In this afternoon’s concert it is performed alongside two works from later in the 19th century: Mendelssohn’s glorious Violin Concerto and Brahms’s musical ‘thank you’ to the University of Breslau for his honorary doctorate.
Read Vladimir Ashkenazy's biography.
Read Akiko Suwanai's biography.
Mendelssohn's Violin ConcertoTickets: £45 £38 £29 £23 £18 £14 £11 £8
RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS
Brahms Academic Festival Overture
Philharmonia Orchestra/Otto Klemperer
EMI 5 62742 2 (complete symphonies, overtures and Alto Rhapsody, Christa Ludwig)
Cleveland Orchestra/Christoph von Dohnányi
Warner Classics 2564 64159 2 (complete symphonies, overtures and Violin Concerto, Thomas Zehetmair)
Boston Symphony Orchestra/Serge Koussevitzky
Naxos 8.111283 (with Wagner: orchestral excerpts from operas and Siegfried Idyll)
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
Jascha Heifetz/Boston Symphony Orchestra/Charles Munch
RCA82876 61391-2 (with Beethoven Violin Concerto)
Janine Jansen/Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra/Riccardo Chailly
Decca 475 8133 (with Bruch Violin Concert No. 1)
Nicola Benedetti/Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields/James MacMillan
Decca 476 3159 (with Mozart & Schubert)
Johanna Martzy/Philharmonia Orchestra/Paul Kletzki
Testament SBT 1037 (with Brahms Violin Concerto)
Beethoven Symphony No. 5
Philharmonia Orchestra/Vladimir Ashkenazy
Penguin Classics 460 603-2 (with Symphony No. 7, Decca recordings)
Philharmonia Orchestra/Otto Klemperer (1955 recording)
Naxos 8.111248 (with Symphony No. 7, 1955 recording)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Carlos Kleiber
DG 447 400-2 (with Symphony No. 7)
Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela/Gustavo Dudamel
DG 477 6228 (with Symphony No. 7)
Beethoven Diabelli Variations
Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano)
Decca 475 8401
Respighi Roman Trilogy (Pines of Rome; Fountains of Rome; Roman Festivals)
Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Holland/Vladimir Ashkenazy
Exton OVCL 00217
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony ranks alongside the Eroica and the Choral symphonies as one of his most revolutionary works. Its première took place as part of a mammoth four-and-a-half hour concert in the freezing cold Theater am dem Wien in 1808; the conditions were so adverse that the symphony was almost completely overlooked, until it was rediscovered 18 months later when the writer ETA Hoffmann declared it ‘one of the most important works of the time’. In this afternoon’s concert it is performed alongside two works from later in the 19th century: Mendelssohn’s glorious Violin Concerto and Brahms’s musical ‘thank you’ to the University of Breslau for his honorary doctorate.
Read Vladimir Ashkenazy's biography.
Read Akiko Suwanai's biography.
Tickets: £45 £38 £29 £23 £18 £14 £11 £8
RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS
Brahms Academic Festival Overture
Philharmonia Orchestra/Otto Klemperer
EMI 5 62742 2 (complete symphonies, overtures and Alto Rhapsody, Christa Ludwig)
Cleveland Orchestra/Christoph von Dohnányi
Warner Classics 2564 64159 2 (complete symphonies, overtures and Violin Concerto, Thomas Zehetmair)
Boston Symphony Orchestra/Serge Koussevitzky
Naxos 8.111283 (with Wagner: orchestral excerpts from operas and Siegfried Idyll)
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
Jascha Heifetz/Boston Symphony Orchestra/Charles Munch
RCA82876 61391-2 (with Beethoven Violin Concerto)
Janine Jansen/Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra/Riccardo Chailly
Decca 475 8133 (with Bruch Violin Concert No. 1)
Nicola Benedetti/Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields/James MacMillan
Decca 476 3159 (with Mozart & Schubert)
Johanna Martzy/Philharmonia Orchestra/Paul Kletzki
Testament SBT 1037 (with Brahms Violin Concerto)
Beethoven Symphony No. 5
Philharmonia Orchestra/Vladimir Ashkenazy
Penguin Classics 460 603-2 (with Symphony No. 7, Decca recordings)
Philharmonia Orchestra/Otto Klemperer (1955 recording)
Naxos 8.111248 (with Symphony No. 7, 1955 recording)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Carlos Kleiber
DG 447 400-2 (with Symphony No. 7)
Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela/Gustavo Dudamel
DG 477 6228 (with Symphony No. 7)
Beethoven Diabelli Variations
Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano)
Decca 475 8401
Respighi Roman Trilogy (Pines of Rome; Fountains of Rome; Roman Festivals)
Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Holland/Vladimir Ashkenazy
Exton OVCL 00217
