Orchestre des Champs-Elysées

After confronting the depths of Mozart's Requiem last season, the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées returns for a masterly Beethovenian demonstration under the expert baton of Philippe Herreweghe.

Premiered in 1807, Symphony No. 4 is a work full of charm, which Schumann said was, between the Eroica and the famous Fifth, "like a slender daughter of Greece between two Nordic giants"! Despite its slow, ominous introduction, the first movement overflows with grace, preceding an Adagio whose inexpressibly tender melody captivated Berlioz. This is followed by an energetic Scherzo, full of contrasting nuances, and a bubbling Finale in the form of perpetual motion. Barely six years later, Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 was one of the greatest public triumphs of his career. After an initial movement that is first majestic, then rhythmically explosive, comes the illustrious Allegretto, an admirable, haunting march that gradually becomes adorned with admirable counter-chants. As for the Finale, it is the epitome of Beethoven's explosion of energy: carried away by the timpani, the orchestra loses itself in a wild round that Wagner, who was rarely impressed, described as a formidable "Bacchanal".
"Bacchanal'.