We invite you to a concert of works by Ludwig van Beethoven. It will start with an overture, followed by an instrumental concerto, and will be crowned by a symphony. The wide variety of moods of these compositions and the classical construction of the programme will surely make it enjoyable.
Incidental music written by Beethoven for August von Kotzebue’s play The Ruins of Athens is marginal in his oeuvre. Of eleven pieces, only two survived – the Turkish March and the short Overture. These two pieces are often presented separately. The Overture will be performed during the concert in June. The melancholic and somewhat gloomy introduction in the tempo of Andante contrasts strongly with the joyful main theme.
Piano Concerto No. 3 is maintained in the composer’s favourite key of C minor. It was chosen by Beethoven when he thought of particularly dramatic, intense pieces with a high expressive charge. It is no difference with this concerto, a work that is impressive and striking in expressive means. It was first performed in 1803 under unusual circumstances. The composer himself sat at the piano. According to an account of Ignaz von Seyfried, a friend of Beethoven’s, who was turning over his pages during the concert, the transcript of the solo part was unfinished. A sketch resembling “Egyptian hieroglyphics” was readable only by the artist, who relied mainly on his memory to play.
Beethoven named his Symphony No. 8, written in 1812, a “little symphony in F” to distinguish it from the “Pastoral” symphony written in the same key. The composer highly valued his Eighth Symphony. This work is light, cheerful, at times even humorous, which does not reveal anything about the dramatic changes taking place in his life. It was associated with a progressive and continuous loss of hearing. While conducting the first performance of Symphony No. 8 in Vienna in February 1814, these disturbances were already so advanced that the orchestra ignored the composer’s illegible instructions and followed those given by the concertmaster.
