Description
The Fourth Symphony probably suffered a little from being caught in an imposing vice, between the Third and Fifth. That one carried real revolutionary forces; this one opened an era of titanic struggle with destiny, a literally unheard-of language whose path will be increasingly steep and lonely over the years.
None of this, apparently, in the Fourth, where Beethoven seems to affirm that beyond the audacity of his experiments, he still possesses a perfect mastery of "classical" writing.
Forgoing the frontal apostrophe, the opening Adagio develops an atmosphere of romantic mystery (not unlike the beginning of Mahler's First Symphony), with ample melodic lines and harmonious rhythm.
The Allegro vivace, although structured by the opposition of a principal motive and two secondary motives arranged in canon, unfolds as if in a single stroke, a movement closed in on itself in an autonomy that Beethoven is increasingly renouncing.
The Adagio of the second movement also possesses this melodic amplitude which gives the main theme, over eight bars, a cantabile character touching on the sublime, while the rhythmic structures gradually become more complex.
The Scherzo recaptures the playful spirit of the first movement, playing with a kind of playfulness between binary and ternary rhythms; the Trio, of particularly simple structure, recalls the tone of the secondary themes heard in the first Allegro vivace.
The Paris Opera Orchestra
A coproduction Opéra national de Paris - Telmondis
In association with ARTE France and M_MEDIA /ClassicAll TV
With the support of Pierre Bergé, patron of the symphonic concerts of the Paris Opera Orchestra and of the Orange Foundation, patron of the audiovisual broadcasts of the Paris Opera
With the support of the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animéeDirector: Vincent Massip
© Opéra national de Paris - Telmondis - 2014Picture: ©Jean-François Leclercq / OnP
Description
1st movement
00:00:01
2nd movement
00:12:40
3rd movement
00:22:23
4th movement
00:28:05
Creatives
Music Ludwig van Beethoven
Conductor