Programme Index

Discover 11,128,835 listings and 279,851 playable programmes from the BBC

Playing Beethoven's Fifth

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC FourLatest broadcast: on BBC Four HD

Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique perform the world's most iconic piece of classical music, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

Bringing out all the revolutionary fervour that Gardiner believes underpins the work and performing on period instruments of Beethoven's day, this performance brings us an authentic re-imagination of the sounds Beethoven's original audiences would have heard.

Shot on location in St John's Smith Square, the performance looks and sounds stunning.

Ahead of the performance, Gardiner and the principals of the orchestra discuss the issues in trying to breathe new life into such a famous piece and how their period instruments transform the symphony's sound. Show less

About this data

This data is drawn from the data stream that informs BBC's iPlayer and Sounds. The information shows what was scheduled to be broadcast, meaning it was/is subject to change and may not be accurate. More