Performed by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Giordano Bellincampi.
Photo: public domain
As ingrained as Symphony No. 5 in C minor is in our collective consciousness as well as the image of Beethoven as an 'acclaimed genius', it's hard to imagine him as a flesh and blood composer hustling to get his works on the stage.
The premiere of his 5th Symphony was part of a large benefit concert for the composer that landed by necessity in the depths of winter – summer months took his wealthy audience to their country estates.
Venue priority in winter was to Opera, the higher-status musical form. So competition for venues during religious observances when opera was banned, was fierce. Beethoven lobbied for months to get his slot.
Then, as it was a time of many competing concerts, musical resources were thin – amateurs filled out the ranks and his orchestra for the evening may have had as few as 6 first violins.
The program was packed, including premieres of his 5th and 6th Symphonies, his 4th Piano Concerto and the Choral Fantasy which he finished too late for sufficient rehearsal. All up, it ran at over 4 hours and the audience was absolutely freezing.
The composer and Beethoven devotee Johann Reichardt neatly summed up the experience:
"There we sat, in the most bitter cold, from half past six until half past ten, and confirmed for ourselves the maxim that one may easily have too much of a good thing, still more of a powerful one.
"To judge all these pieces after a one and only hearing, especially considering the language of Beethoven's works, in that so many were performed one after the other, and that most of them are so grand and long, is downright impossible."
Little wonder then that the 5th Symphony wasn't hailed an instant classic.
Programme note by Kevin Keys
Recorded in Auckland Town Hall by RNZ Concert, 13 May 2021
Sound Engineer: Adrian Hollay
Producer: Tim Dodd
