Beethoven 5 - Program Note
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67
Composed 1804-1808
When conductors begin their training, each note of the nine symphonies of Beethoven and the four of Brahms are considered biblical. Conducting auditions almost always feature a movement from one of these thirteen symphonies.
Following academic study of these pieces, conductors begin leading them from the podium. Even the most familiar of these works, such as Beethoven’s Fifth, proves to have deep challenges. The famous opening bars are extremely difficult technically—and many interpretive decisions have to be made:
- Should the three short eighth notes have space between them or should they be full length?
- How should the strings use their bows (speed, pressure, and direction) so that the sound is of the correct character and also sets up the following gesture?
- Is there any way that we can hear the clarinets, playing in the middle of their register where it is hard to deliver volume, against the full complement of strings? (Did you ever notice that the clarinets are the only non-stringed instrument to play during the opening bars?)
Once these questions and many more are successfully answered— conductors bring those decisions to bear while leading dozens of musicians who have valid, but varying ideas of what will sound best. Added to this, the piece is played so quickly that the conductor can only provide one baton beat per measure of music. This results in an inherent lessening of the “control” that the conductor possesses gesturally over such nuances.
As you listen to this familiar work today, I encourage you to challenge your expectations as a listener. Maestro Milanov will be delivering to you his carefully constructed interpretation, and it will enliven your experience to consider the detailed decision-making that defines an artist’s and an orchestra’s rendition of a masterwork.
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is really the genesis point for a style of music journey. This and other innovations had an everlasting impact on the symphonies that followed.
The impact is found in new features such as:
- The beginning of a piece in major and ending it in the parallel minor key. Beethoven himself wrote, “many assert that every minor piece must end in the minor. On the contrary!... The major has a glorious effect. Joy follows sorrow, sunshine—rain.”
- The use of piccolo, contrabassoon, and trombones in the finale cemented these instruments’ place in the symphonic force.
- The “attacca” (proceeding without pause) motion from the third movement into the finale.
- The music germ, or motif, of the opening notes of the symphony having an impact in the creation of so much of the other musical material.
- The return of music from the third movement in the latter half of the fourth movement.
These innovations, plus many others, removed compositional norms and created a new palette of possibilities for the great symphonists that followed. It will be a beautiful listening experience to consider this masterpiece with fresh ears and minds today. Consider how these innovations must have impacted the audience of Beethoven’s day, and also the careful architecture of musical decision-making led by Maestro Milanov that will make this piece sound fresh and vibrant to you today.
~By John Devlin
PSO Assistant Conductor, 2015-2018
Music Director, Wheeling Symphony Orchestra