Beethoven Archives - North West End UK

Beethoven’s Eroica – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

2Apr

By Ezzy LaBelleNo Comments

North West

Beethoven’s Eroica – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

The historical and the heroic meet for an evening of bold musical flavours and a mixture of melodies as the Philharmonic Orchestra take you on a journey of strife, struggle, freedom and fervour. Blending the new and the familiar, conductor Joshua Weilerstein leads the auditorium through renditions of 'Ethiopia's Shadow in America' (Florence Price), Violin Concerto (Samuel Barber) and Symphony no.3 'Eroica (Ludwig Van Beethoven). The enthusiasm for the music is clear as he steps out. Passionately describing the background to Florence Price's 1932 symphony, he tells us that she was one of the first female black composers to have their work published and played to an audience. Much of her work was lost for a long time, being rediscovered in 2009, and has therefore not been heard. ...

Philharmonia Sessions: Beethoven’s Prometheus – Battersea Arts Centre

Presented in the month of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra playing Beethoven's famous ballet The Creatures of Prometheus. In this version, each symphonic movement is punctuated by Stephen Fry explaining the part of the story about to be told, aided by animation by Hillary Leben and a script by Gerard McBurney. Beethoven wrote his hugely popular ballet score in 1801, in just 11 days and, as Fry tells us, the version of the ancient Greek creation story he used is not the most widely established one about Prometheus giving man fire. In this version Prometheus creates man with fire from Mount Olympus and then calls on Apollo, god of music and dance, the Muses, and a host of other deities to teach his Creatures what it is to e...

Beethoven’s Fidelio – Royal Opera House

Recorded just prior to lockdown and largely unedited, conductor Antonio Pappano introduces a new production of Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, from the Royal Opera House, a story of risk and triumph against a backdrop of revolution, with Tobias Kratzer’s new staging, including some dialogue changes, bringing together the dark reality of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution and the conflicts of the modern age to illuminate Fidelio’s inspiring message of a common humanity. This is very much an opera of two halves with Act One in period as Leonore (Lise Davidsen) attempts to locate her husband, Florestan (David Butt Philip) who is a political prisoner incarcerated in a secret dungeon and subject to torture from the governor of the prison, Don Pizarro (Simon Neal). To secure a...