Written at a turbulent time in the composer’s life, Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony is a brilliant example of the tragic yet otherworldly genius that has come to be associated with Beethoven’s music. Napoleonic wars, unrequited love, financial difficulties combine to create a melting pot for the work that resulted. Its highlight comes in the second movement – the Allegretto – where this unrest seems to pour out in a slow, dark, searingly beautiful form. The movement is often played on its own, and has been used for a range of scores for films, advertisements and television programmes, including most recently The Kings Speech. The Viennese audience who heard it first must have realised how good it was – it was encored as soon as it finished. Berlioz composed his revolutionary masterpiece Symphonie fantastique a mere three years after his hero Beethoven’s death. The ultimate musical statement of the Romantic Movement, it describes a series of increasingly lurid and violent hallucinatory visions experienced by the artist under the influence of opium. Completing the programme, Helix, a composition written by Maestro Salonen.
Esa-Pekka Salonen on Beethoven (Autumn 2012)
Esa-Pekka Salonen on Beethoven and contemporary music.
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Find out about Esa-Pekka Salonen, Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor.
Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique
Sam Burstin takes us on a guided tour through Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique.
Symphonie Fantastique
Buy on CD or download Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
