Ferencsik season ticket 6
On 22 December 1808, an audience assembled at the Theater an der Wien in order to hear Beethoven’s new works. The concert proved to be a bit tiring, as it lasted four hours. In addition to two new symphonies (the Symphony No. 5 in C minor and the Symphony No. 6 in F major), the event also featured the Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, a concert aria, two movements from a mass, and the composer also improvised for the audience. He even decided, at the last minute, to write a soaring choral piece to conclude the programme. This became the Choral Fantasy. The auditorium was not heated, and they say Beethoven was amused that most of the audience stuck it out to the end. This time around, the audience will not have to shiver as they enjoy two pieces from that famous concert: the Choral Fantasy and the Sixth Symphony. What is interesting about the former is the lengthy piano introduction (which Beethoven originally improvised at the concert), as well as the melody that sounds quite close to the later Ode to Joy. Beethoven also wrote titles for the individual movements of the Pastoral Symphony, as his sixth effort in the genre is known. The first one is about the beauty of village life, while the second is a scene by a brook. Then a village celebration starts, only to be interrupted by a unique celebration of nature: a raging storm. The finalé is a hymn of gratitude to nature. Opening the concert will be the highly popular three-movement work that Leonard Bernstein composed to the Book of Psalms. Chichester Psalms was written for a festival at the famous English cathedral.