CINEMASCOPE

Introduction 50 minutes before the start of the concert in the concert hall

The way Mozart has a lady called Fiordiligi insist on her unshakable, rock-like fidelity in a soprano vein is worthy of Hollywood at the least: sung athleticism with cinematic pathos. A virtuoso vow of faithfulness in the »larger than life« category.

In Beethoven’s case, we are already one fatal step further: this lady is angry at her unfaithful boyfriend. Thanks to Ludwig’s artful composition, even a passionate outburst of anger is musically convincing: »Go, wicked man! Run from me!« A virtuoso emotional roller-coaster, from fury to pleading: »Tell me if in such trouble I am not worthy of pity?«

No sooner do you have a really unusual idea, repeating one and the same note forty times, but posterity goes crazy, thinking it’s a chicken they are hearing. That’s not what Joseph Haydn set out on a concert tour to Paris to achieve. Perhaps it’s best if you simply forget any mention of fowl after the first movement of Haydn’s Symphony No. 85. And just enjoy an elegant musical ride with totally surprising twists and turns.

No other piece has such manic forward propulsion. No other work is so blatant from the very beginning. Never before or after has a work of music seized its listeners by the lapels from the very first second as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. And even if all the world knows its first four notes: it’s worth pricking your ears for this piece, even if you’ve heard it a thousand times! Infinite discoveries still await: gentleness, pondering, longing, subtleness from Beethoven’s unapologetically stormy hand.