THE
1808 CONCERT
On a
cold Vienna night in 1808, Beethoven shook the musical
world like no other composer had, or probably would again.
He gave the first performance of his Fifth Symphony -
perhaps the most famous symphony ever written. He also gave
the first performance of his “Pastoral” Symphony - the work
that would inspire a century of Romantic composers. He
played the piano part of his Fourth Piano Concerto - the
first time this extraordinary work was heard in a public
performance. And he wrote a new piece specifically for this
concert: the Choral Fantasy, which, like the later Ninth
Symphony, gradually incorporates soloists and chorus into
the orchestra (it also anticipates the famous theme of the
Ode to Joy). To top it all off, Beethoven gave one of his
worst performances ever: although he was deaf, he insisted
on conducting himself; the orchestra nearly rebelled and,
at one point, the performance actually fell apart and the
performers had to restart. All in all, the audience was
bewildered rather than overwhelmed. One patron commented
that “in the bitterest of cold, from 6:30 to 10:30, we
experienced that one can easily have too much of a good
thing.”
We are proud to present a replica of this event, minus the
cold and hopefully the mishaps also. The order of the
original concert has been preserved. Both halves start with
the famous symphonies, the Fifth and the Sixth - whereas
most orchestras nowadays would program them last. The
mixture of short and long works is rather curious: it is
more usual to start with a short work, then with a concerto
and finish with the longest work on the program. The end of
the evening makes more sense to us perhaps, since the
Choral Fantasy incorporates almost all of the forces of the
preceding works. It was meant as the climax of the evening,
even if posterity seems to have decided that the climax was
really at the beginning of each half. But too bad for
posterity! This is a chance to see and hear things as they
were, an outrageous display of some of the greatest music
ever written, when the ink was barely dry.
THE PROGRAM:
Symphony no. 6 “Pastorale”
“Ah Perfido”
Mass in C: Gloria
Piano Concerto no. 4 in G major
intermission
Symphony no 5 in C minor
Mass in C: Sanctus
Piano Fantasy
Choral Fantasy