The Bamberg Symphony Orchestra’s second concert in its inter-city Beethoven symphony marathon is all about maximum contrast.
Robert Schumann once described Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony as a ‘slender Greek maiden between two northern giants’. Why? Because it seems so light and delicate when set between the earth-shattering Third and the fateful Fifth. In fact, Beethoven was in love and in a rare fit of optimism when he wrote the B flat major symphony. The fact that his happiness was short-lived is perhaps reflected in the Fifth, which, in typical Beethovenian fashion, struggles ‘along rugged paths towards the stars’. Yet even if the composer himself was denied personal happiness, the Fourth and the Fifth form an impressive pairing on the concert stage.
Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Jakub Hrůša – conductor
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 in B flat major, Op. 60; Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 (Source: KTK Heinersdorff)
