Emelie Hooke (soprano)
Solomon (piano)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
(Leader, Paul Beard)
Conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent
From the Royal Albert Hall. London
Beethoven Concert
Symphony No. 2. in D
8.7 Scene and Aria: Abscheulicher
(Fidelio)
8.18 Piano Concerto No. 5. in A flat
(Emperor)
The Symphony No. 2 was written during the year 1802, when Beethoven was thirty-one years old, and it was first performed, in Vienna, in April of the following year. Deafness and other troubles were threatening to overwhelm him at the time, and his feelings, almost of despair, caused him to write his famous ' Testament ' to his brothers Carl and Johann. But in the Symphony there is scarcely a hint of those dark thoughts: its vigour and brilliance may be held to represent the triumph of his will and courage. ' I will wage war against destiny,' he said to a friend; it shall not overcome me completely.'
Harold Rutland