Few moments in music have given rise to such controversy and varying interpretations, and the entire movement - indeed, the entire symphony вЂ“ is based on this aural jolt. But from the beginning it startles us, and we know something different from the usual is happening. Even so, the opening movement - which opens so unforgettably with its iconic motif, a rhyming pair of four-note bars - is developed in sonata allegro form. This symphony quickly took on the reputation of a maverick work that challenged the conventions of symphonic structure. It ends in this sun-filled key, having transported us from darkness to light. Rather than ending conventionally, the symphony builds over thundering timpani to resolve in radiant C major. But it leads us to a scherzo вЂ“ fairly common as a third-movement framework in symphonies, but unusually intense in this one. I see before my mind the picture in its whole extent, as if in a single grasp.вЂќ To some listeners, this supports the idea that Beethoven built his magnificent four-movement work on four fateful notes.ДЇrom the first movement, with its remarkable alternation between exclamation and contemplation, we move to a movement marked andante con moto, built on two themes that Beethoven develops separately after the tension of the first movement, the second seems spontaneous and almost meandering. Since I am aware of what I want, the fundamental idea never leaves me. But not many of his comments regarding the Fifth Symphony survive from these productive years in one note, he says there вЂќbegins in my head the working-out in breadth, height and depth. 4, the Violin Concerto in D, and three major piano sonatas. He wrote it from 1804 through 1808, a period that also gave us the Fourth and Sixth symphonies, his Piano Concerto No. 5 probably makes the strongest case for this idea. Beethoven partisans consider him the colossus who fulfilled the promise of one style while defining the challenges of the next - the father of musical Romanticism - and his Symphony No. It is a bold expression of BeethovenвЂ™s middle period as a composer. 5 is a landmark in music, combining the refinement and formal perfection of the Classical period with the philosophical and emotional urgency of the Romantic age. Scholars agree that BeethovenвЂ™s Symphony No. And though the fourth has a serene and Hellenic air, the fifth is even more dramatic and cerebral than the third it was begun before the fourth, and the work continued for about two years after the fourth was completed. Rodda, for one, has his doubts about whether this idea really originated with Beethoven, but does it matter? BeethovenвЂ™s philosophical and passionate third symphony, the вЂњEroicaвЂќ (1804), announced his departure from the Classical restraint of his first two symphonies.

In the original German, with the loaded word Schicksal denoting fate or destiny, it takes on even more drama. The FifthвЂ™s opening theme, pounded out once and then repeated a whole step down, really does sound like вЂњfate knocking at the door,вЂќ a phrase that has stuck to it ever since BeethovenвЂ™s students Anton Schindler and Ferdinand Ries circulated the story. In that case it is five thunderous notes, not four, that seem to invoke the fate of the universe. Rodda, this is вЂњthe most famous beginning in all of classical music.вЂќ ThatвЂ™s a dramatic assertion considering that the portentous opening of Richard StraussвЂ™s tone poem вЂњAlso sprach ZarathustraвЂќ - better known in our era as вЂњthe theme from 2001вЂќ - is so similar in impact. This is one of those iconic works of art that we all seem to know from birth - in particular, those four introductory notes that, conveniently enough, conform to the rhythm of the phrase вЂњBeethovenвЂ™s Fifth.вЂќ According to musicologist Richard E. Instrumentation: 3 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 3 bassoons 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones strings percussion.

Sibelius 5 intro