Beethoven 1, 2 and 4

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Jan Willem de Vriend opens the concert series with three of Beethoven's earliest symphonies.

Beethoven took the symphony beyond the Viennese tradition into which it was born, setting it on the path to become a universal statement of the human condition. That process started with the composer’s first two symphonies – works that resemble the music of Viennese classicism in some ways, but appear completely different in others.

These pieces are sometimes referred to as ‘preparatory’. In truth they are anything but. The First broke the rules from its pungent opening chord in the ‘wrong’ key while the second – packed full of innovation, all of it concealed deftly under a joyous veneer of wit, lyricism and playful energy – was written on a scale hitherto unknown in music.

By the time of his Symphony No 4, Beethoven was deep into his project to change the scale and scope of the symphony forever. And yet, this work from 1806 manages to embody all the composer’s expressive innovations while appearing the picture of charm and elegance.

Our Beethoven series

Music was changed forever by Beethoven’s symphonies. These nine pieces, spanning the first quarter of the nineteenth century, changed the way composers write, musicians play and audiences listen. In one fell swoop, they transformed not just the scale and ambition of instrumental music but also the whole idea of musical creativity and performance and their place in society.

Two hundred years after the composer’s death, and after years of excellent and revelatory work with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra on Beethoven’s music, Jan Willem de Vriend conducts these nine pivotal works across the space of ten days at the Grieg Hall – a journey through the greatest body of orchestral works ever created that will renew not just the works themselves but also the musicians playing them and the audiences hearing them.