Freiburg Baroque Orchestra: Great Fugue

Program:
Ludwig van Beethoven
Great Fugue op. 133

Ludwig Spohr
Nonet in F major op. 31

Felix Mendelssohn
String Symphony No. 11 in F major

Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Cecilia Bernardini violin & conductor

Three works, three unusual instrumentations: Ludwig van Beethoven's "Great Fugue" was originally written as the final movement of a string quartet. At the request of his publisher, Beethoven published it as an independent work. It caused irritation at its premiere in 1826, with many contemporaries finding it too bold and complex. Today it is considered a visionary late work that was far ahead of its time.

Ludwig Spohr's Nonet in F major op. 31 was composed in 1813 for a then unusual combination of strings and winds. Spohr, once one of the most celebrated musicians in Europe, allows the nine instruments to dialogue with each other on an equal footing, with no one instrument dominating.

Ten years later, Felix Mendelssohn, just 14 years old, composed the String Symphony No. 11, which also uses percussion. A symphonic form for strings and timpani, written by a teenager with astonishing compositional maturity.