Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 And 6

Zagreb Po

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Cat No: 8553224

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099422420

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: BEETHOVEN

Description
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)Symphony No.5 in C Minor, Op. 67Symphony No.6 in F Major, Op. 68, "Pastoral"Beethoven wrote nine symphonies, the first heralding the new century, in1800, and the last completed in 1824. Although he made few changes to thecomposition of the orchestra itself, adding, when occasion demanded, one or twoinstruments more normally found in the opera-house, he expanded vastly thetraditional form, developed in the time of Haydn and Mozart, reflecting thepersonal and political struggles of a period of immense change and turbulence.To his contemporaries he seemed an inimitable original, but to a number of hissuccessors he seemed to have expanded the symphony to an intimidating extent.Beethoven's Symphony in C minor, Opus 67, is a work that has enjoyedenormous popularity, not least for its patriotic associations that accord wellwith the period of its composition and have proved to suit the sensibilities oflater generations. For some of the work has become known as Fate, as the resultof an alleged remark of the composer, reported by the unreliable Schindler, onthe opening of the first movement - Thus Fate knocks at the door. It has beenleft for others to point out that there is plenty of evidence for similarknocking at doors in other compositions by Beethoven, the initial rhythmicfigure being one that he found to his purpose on other occasions.Beethoven composed music relatively slowly and carefully, and the earlysketches for the C minor Symphony are found in notebooks of 1804, theperiod of the Eroica Symphony. The work was completed in 1808 anddedicated to Count Razumovsky, Prince Lichnowsky's brother-in-law, the Tsar'srepresentative in Vienna and a patron of great munificence, while his moneylasted, and to Prince Lobkowitz. It received its first performance at a concerton 22nd December, 1808. The taxing programme, that resulted in near disaster inthe final Choral Fantasia, included the Pastoral Symphony and the FourthPiano Concerto, as well as a number of items for soloists and chorus. Itseems that the Fifth Symphony was at first intended, like the Fourth, forCount Franz von Oppersdorff, from whom the composer certainly received somepayment. By September of the year of its completion, however, Beethoven had soldit to the publishers Breitkopf and Haertel. In orchestration the FifthSymphony shows innovations in its inclusion of the piccolo, the doublebassoon and three trombones in the final movement.The sixth of Beethoven's nine symphonies, the Pastoral, was firstperformed at a concert in Vienna in December 1808. The occasion was an importantone for the composer, since it was likely to prove the only significant sourceof income for him that year. In preparation for the event he had put aside workon his projected opera Macbeth and on the alternative text of Bradamante,both supplied by Heinrich von Collin, and assembled a programme of phenomenallength. The works played included the Fifth Symphony, the Fourth PianoConcerto, a pi
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