The BBC Empire Orchestra
Leader, Leonard Hirsch
Conductor, Eric Fogg It was not until 1800, when Beethoven was thirty years of age, that he embarked upon his First Symphony in C, which is more or less carefully modelled on the conventional lines followed by his predecessors. In the Second Symphony in D, however, he shows complete mastery over technical problems, and although he still accepts the symphonic pattern of Haydn and Mozart and uses the normal classical orchestra without trombones, the firm and unmistakable signature of Beethoven is apparent throughout, particularly in the fiery first movement. And there is one magical passage near the end of the finale that could have been written by no one else.