Saturday 08 May 2010 at 20:00
Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge

Beethoven Ensemble: Expanding Horizons

Tickets from http://www.beethovenensemble.com

Daniel Hill, conductor
Robin Green, piano
Antoine Francoise, piano

Programme:
Jean Sibelius ~ The Swan of Tuonela from 'Legends', Op 22
Francis Poulenc ~ Concerto for two pianos and orchestra in D minor
Ludwig van Beethoven ~ Symphony No 5 in C minor, Op 67

Tickets from http://www.beethovenensemble.com

Although each of these three works is distinct in period, nationality and musical tinta they all share a wonderful joy of breaking boundaries and exploring new horizons. The score inscription of Sibelius's The Swan of Tuonela sets forth "Tuonela, the Kingdom of Death, the Hades of Finnish mythology, is surrounded by a broad river of black water and rapid current, in which the Swan of Tuonela glides in majestic fashion and sings." The majestic but intensely sad, swan-like melody soars and escapes. The Concerto for Two Pianos combines Maurice Chevalier with Mozart, music hall buffoonery with Balinese gamelan and lilting melodies, all with a touch of innocent hedonism. The work is cast in the traditional three movements: The outer two brim with saucy melodies and unbridled exuberance, never lapsing into vulgarity or mawkish sentimentality; the middle slow movement is neoclassical in spirit (Poulenc has invoked his beloved Mozart), with a central section more Romantic in inspiration. Poulenc heard a Balinese gamelan at the Colonial Exposition of Paris in 1931, and he has incorporated bits of that music as well, most tellingly at the end of the first movement, where, after a pianissimo clack of the castanets, the two pianos commence an extraordinary passage of mysterious and hypnotic reverie. Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is one of the greatest monuments in Western music: its sonic impact still has a powerful influence on audiences, and the shear joy expressed in the final movement has rarely been paralleled.

Tickets: £12/£8 (concessions)/£3 (students).
Available from http://www.beethovenensemble.com, 01223 968333 and on the door