Beethoven Symphony Cycle (Nos 1 & 2)
Norwich
Saffron Walden
London
26 – 02 Jun 2017
Gerald Barry
Beethoven
Beethoven
Symphony No. 1 in C major
Beethoven
Symphony No. 2 in D major
Artists
Thomas Adès
conductor
Mark Stone
baritone
Summary
“Adès makes you hear things with which you thought you were familiar as if they were completely new” wrote the Guardian’s Tom Service and in this Beethoven Symphony Cycle, the enthralling composer and conductor Thomas Adès is sure to shed new light on these monuments of orchestral repertoire. Over the course of three years Britten Sinfonia and Thomas Adès will perform all nine Beethoven symphonies, partnering these masterworks with the audacious and sometimes explosive music of the wonderfully idiosyncratic Irish composer, Gerald Barry.
In the opening concert of this three-year project, we hear Beethoven’s witty first symphony paired with the virtuosic second. These are complemented by Gerald Barry’s powerful setting of Beethoven’s love letter to his ‘immortal beloved’.
Find out more about the Beethoven Symphony Cycle here.
Download the programme notes for this concert here.
Saffron Hall & Norwich Pre-Concert Talk, 6.30pm: Mark Stone discusses Gerald Barry’s Beethoven.
The Norwich performance is part of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2017.
Related News / Blog
Reviews
Bachtrack
"For the start of the Beethoven cycle proper, we were given the first two symphonies and it was immediately clear that Adès’ approach was unlikely to be stale."
Read MoreClassical Source
"Mark Stone, a Barry regular, was a terrific narrator, falsettist and crooner, and Adès and the Britten Sinfonia kept Barry’s anarchic, fleeting score on the boil."
Read MoreThe Guardian
"Every bar of each symphony seemed thrillingly restored, honed down to their muscular core."
Read MoreThe Telegraph
"Much of the evening’s success was due to the Britten Sinfonia, a fine and often underpraised ensemble from Cambridge who are celebrating their quarter century."
Read More