Word: beethovenã
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...concert featured Ludwig van Beethoven??s Ninth Symphony, and the holiday season-appropriate themes of peace and joy dominated the program. Though two of the first three pieces could have stood by themselves, the audience waited with bated breath in anticipation of Beethoven??s masterpiece, and consequently the opening three pieces seemed like an overture...
...first piece, perhaps fittingly an overture to Beethoven??s Fidelio, is frequently played—and for good reason. Its mixture of emotive passages from the woodwinds and triumphant cadences from the strings make for an enjoyable and meaningful experience. Though the opening was a little shaky, the orchestra pulled it together for the most part by the middle and end of the overture. However, the winds struggled throughout, as the clarinets and the French horns both frequently botched their entrances and strayed from pitch...
After a brief intermission the audience refilled the theater. Many consider the Ninth Symphony to be Beethoven??s greatest composition and one of the most influential pieces on the Western Canon, because of its deep psychological exploration of solitude that evolves to an overwhelming affirmation of universal brotherhood...
According to conventional symphony form, a slow movement follows the opening, and a light, dance-like movement precedes the final movement. Beethoven switched these in the Ninth to increase the dramatic buildup before his grand conclusion. Beethoven??s intentions were well understood by the orchestra, as the chorus took its place on the stage before the third movement, although they only enter in the fourth, so they would not interrupt the flow...
...Beethoven??s organization of the opening of the fourth movement is particularly intriguing. In the style of an operatic recitative, the winds present the head of a theme from earlier in the symphony, followed by a sinking figure in the cellos and basses. Each theme presented by the winds is rejected by the low strings until the winds finally present a variation of the familiar “Ode to Joy” theme, which is enthusiastically taken up by the low strings, then the violas and the violins, and finally the entire orchestra and even the chorus...