5th symphony concert

"Love, it will achieve it."

Leonore bravely sings her courage in Beethoven's only opera Fidelio - courage that she urgently needs for the daring rescue of her husband. He has been on death row for years as a political resistance fighter. Nowhere else in music theater have love and political commitment come together with such force.

Beethoven wrote four overtures for his opera, the third of which is one of his best-known works and goes beyond the standards of the usual opera overtures in terms of its drama and musical radicalism - a real Leonore! Exactly 200 years later, in the short opera La plus forte by Irish composer Gerald Barry, two women have a traumatic encounter in a café. The friendly Mrs. X becomes increasingly abusive and violent when she finds out that Mrs. Y is having an affair with her husband. But Mrs. X pulls herself together to leave the scene as the superior woman - whatever the cost: "Thank you for teaching my husband how to love! Now I'm going home to love him for myself."

Beethoven wanted to encourage people to be intelligent and free with his music: Listen to his brilliant 7th Symphony ! You will leave the Konzerthaus (concert hall) wiser, more alert and more loving! "O nameless joy."

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827): Leonore Overture No. 3

Gerald Barry (*1952): La plus forte

Opera in one act for soprano and orchestra based on the play The Strongest by August Strindberg (concert performance)

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7

With works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Gerald Barry and Ludwig van Beethoven | Musical direction: Gerhard Markson

INTRODUCTION | 18:45 h