Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 2 And 5

Description

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770- 1827)Symphony No.2 in D major, Opus 36Symphony No.5 in C minor, Opus 67 Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn in 1770, the son ofa singer in the employment of the Elector of Cologne and, rather moreimportant, the grandson of the former Kapellmeister of the Electoral chapel, aman of some distinction. Beethoven's childhood was overshadowed, however, bythe inadequacy and drunkenness of his father, which made it necessary for him finallyto take charge of the family. He was to continue attempts to control the affairsof his younger brothers in later life, to their obvious resentment. Beethoven showed early ability as a musician and wasemployed as a musician by the Archbishop-Elector, who was responsible forencouraging him to go to Vienna, where he settled in 1792, taking lessons fromHaydn, and, more profitably, from the new Kapellmeister of St. Stephen'sCathedral, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, and from the Imperial Kapellmeister,Antonio Salieri. In Vienna he was able to establish himself, through theintroductions he brought with him, as a virtuoso pianist and as a startlinglyoriginal composer. In spite of increasing deafness, which put an end to hiscareer as a performer and made conducting a hazardous process, Beethovensucceeded in developing his genius as a composer in a completely original way,relying on the support of a patient series of friends and patrons, who providedmoral and financial assistance, in spite of Beethoven's touchy ingratitude andgrowing eccentricity.With Beethoven, in fact, there is the beginning of apossibility of heroic independence for the composer, who is no longerconsidered a court craftsman. His music, uneven as it can be, expands thedimensions of those classical forms that had become established by the end ofthe eighteenth century, attempting, sometimes, the impossible, and seeming tosome of his successors to have achieved a summit beyond which no furtherdevelopment was possible. To Wagner, for example, the Ninth Symphonyseemed a height from which only he, the self-appointed successor of Beethoven,could climb further, by means of music-drama. To Schumann, on the other hand,it seemed that Brahms represented a second coming of Beethoven, a prophecy thatwas at the root of much of that composer's later diffidence. In Bonn, among fifty or so compositions, Beethoven had alreadyattempted two symphonies, a C minor work and another in C major, but these hadnever been completed. In Vienna most of his first compositions were related tohis own needs as a performer, and apart from the two first piano concertos, hiswriting for orchestra was limited to less substantial forms. It was not until 1800that his first symphony was completed. It was to be published the followingyear with a dedication to Baron van Swieten, a man whose taste had hadconsiderable influence, in one way or another, on both Haydn and Mozart. The second of Beethoven's nine symphonies was completedin 1802, a year of part