PASTORAL AND CELEBRATION - Beethoven / Gábor Takács-Nagy - E/5

Apollo and Dionysus, idyll and rampant celebration: such pairs of opposites could be used to describe Beethoven's two symphonies, the Symphony No. 6 and Symphony No. 7. The first is one of the most beautiful examples of music depicting nature, in which we hear birdsong, the murmur of a stream, a shepherd's horn. The second, which – after Richard Wagner’s often quoted remark – has been called 'the Apotheosis of the Dance itself', was a resounding success in its day in the imperial city.  more