Beethoven Symphony Nos 4 and 5

Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique/Gardiner

Thu 14 May 2020, 19:30 ,Barbican Hall

John Edward Gardiner conducting masterfully on stage

Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Beethoven Symphony cycle reaches its halfway point with the most famous four notes in the history of music.

‘Thus Fate knocks at the door!’ Everyone knows the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony – but the rest of the symphony delivers a still more powerful punch. Prepare to be gripped – and to be delighted, too, by the Fifth’s prettier, wittier counterpart, the sparkling Fourth Symphony.

Because no matter how often you’ve heard masterpieces like these, they’ve always got new surprises to offer, and particularly when the performers are Gardiner and the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique. On period instruments, lush sounds become lithe and active, familiar melodies kick up their heels and dance, and even the moments of greatest triumph are alive with new possibilities - and risks.