Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra / Season 2019-20

Christmas. L.v. BEETHOVEN (III)

Conductor VIRGINIA MARTINEZ
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Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op.19, L.v. Beethoven
Juan Barahona piano
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Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op.125, ‘Choral’, L.v. Beethoven
Beatriz Díaz soprano
Anna Bonitatibus mezzo-soprano
Johannes Chum tenor
Werner Van Mechelen bass
Malaga Opera Choir
Director Salvador Vázquez

1.50 h (w/intermission)
orquestafilarmonicademalaga.com
Program notes Jose Antonio Canton

One must go back to Beethoven's adolescence to find the first blueprints of his Concerto No. 2, Op.19, the first to be composed and the second to be premiered, which is why it is called the second. It underwent several revisions until 1798, year of the final and definite version published by Franz Anton Hoffmeister in Leipzig in 1801, to whom Beethoven confessed that “it is not one of my best works [...] although you will not be dishonoured by publishing it."

Dedicated to Friedrich Wilhelm III, King of Prussia, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was first performed at the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna on the 7th of May 1824 with Michael Umlauf as conductor, assisted by Ignaz Schuppanzigh and by Beethoven standing at his side to pass the pages. The controversial opinions regarding the Symphony disappeared following Wagner's comments after hearing it for the first time: “Beethoven's last symphony redeems music, due to its most intimate virtue, and takes it towards the universal art of the future. After the Ninth no progress is possible, as it can only be directly followed by the consummate work of art of the future, in other words the universal drama whose artistic code we have been given by Beethoven.”

Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra Season 2019-20