Ravinia 2019, Issue 5, Week 9

8:00 PM THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2019 PAVILION CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA RAFAEL PAYARE, conductor YEFIM BRONFMAN, piano BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5 Allegro con brio Andante con moto Scherzo: Allegro Allegro –Intermission– BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 1 Maestoso Adagio Rondo: Allegro non troppo Yefim Bronfman Ravinia expresses its appreciation for the generous support of Season Sponsor Charles and Margery Barancik Foundation . LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) Symphony No. 5 in C minor, op. 67 Scored for two flutes and piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons and contrabassoon, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, and strings “Beethoven’s instrumental music opens up to us the realm of the monstrous and the immeasur- able. Burning flashes of light shoot through the deep night of this realm, and we become aware of giant shadows that surge back and forth, driv- ing us. … [His] music sets in motion the lever of fear, of awe, of horror, of suffering, and wakens just that infinite longing which is the essence of Romanticism. He is accordingly a completely Romantic composer, and is not this perhaps the reason why he has less success with vocal mu- sic, which excludes the character of indefinite longing, merely representing emotions defined by words as emotions experienced in the realm of the infinite?” Thus wrote E.T.A. Hoffmann in 1813 about Bee- thoven’s dramatic Symphony No. 5 in C minor. In this work, Beethoven achieves a precarious balance between Classical form and order, and the bizarre other-worldliness of Romanticism. At the same time, the most essential elements of music—melody and rhythm—are reduced to an unprecedented level of simplicity in the opening theme, what the composer described as “Fate knocking at the door.” These kernels, cultivated in the fertile realms of Beethoven’s imagination, blossom into a musical work that has both capti- vated and confounded listeners to this day. Like many of Beethoven’s compositions, the Symphony No. 5 was slow in developing. He made plans for a symphony in C minor even before completing the Symphony No. 1 in C ma- jor in 1800. Sketches for the eventual Symphony No. 5 began in 1804 and continued sporadically for the next four years. Beethoven finished his Symphony No. 5 in 1808, during his so-called Heroic Period, a time when his style assumed Ludwig van Beethoven by Joseph Willibrord Mähler (1804–5) JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 97