American Classical Orchestra 40th Anniversary Concert: Beethoven Symphony No. 7

American Classical Orchestra

Wednesday, September 18, 2024 @ 7:30pm – 9:30pm (EDT)

Alice Tully Hall, New York, NY, United States

$35-$75

Petra Somlai, fortepiano
Thomas Crawford, conductor

Ludwig van Beethoven — Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58
Ludwig van Beethoven — Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92

Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 had an inauspicious beginning. Its first private performance was in March of 1807 by Beethoven at the home of one of his patrons, Prince Franz Joseph von Labkowitz, an aristocrat of Bohemia. It premiered publicly—again with Beethoven playing—on December 22, 1808, as part of a four-hour-long program that included premiers of his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies during a cold snap at Vienna's unheated Theater an der Wien. That caused one commentator to remark that the marathon program was "too much of a good thing" but another to claim that the Fourth was "the most admirable, singular, artistic and complex Beethoven concerto ever." The program included Beethoven's "Choral Fantasy," which fell apart during the performance and had to be restarted. The entire program closed after its second performance. The Fourth Piano Concerto then suffered neglect until nine years later when, in 1836, it was revived by Felix Mendelssohn.

Beethoven's Fourth is the only classical-era concerto to begin with a piano solo. It starts delicately but breaks off after only a few bars, as though in the middle of an improvisation. The orchestra then repeats the piano's theme in a different key, adds to it, and keeps on going. What follows—both in that movement and in the remaining two—is a lyrical and often robust back and forth between piano and orchestra that demonstrates Beethoven’s power of invention and fills the listener with moments of reverence, grandeur, and sheer awe at the riveting beauty of it all.

Fortepiano soloist Petra Somlai returns to us for our 40th Anniversary celebratory season. Her prized recording of the "Moonlight" Sonata, made for us in 2020, resides on our website. All who heard her September 2022 rendition of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the ACO at Alice Tully Hall still remember it. Born in Hungary, schooled in Budapest, Petra juggles performing and teaching at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where she lives with her husband, the celebrated pianist Bart van Oort, and their two young daughters, Anna and Lili.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 was composed in 1811-1812, more than three years after the premiers of his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies. He finished it in Teplice, a Bohemian spa town, where had gone to improve his health. It premiered at the great hall of the University of Vienna, with Beethoven conducting, on December 8, 1813, as part of a charity concert for soldiers wounded in the Battle of Hanau.

Unlike the premiers of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, which were not a great success, the Seventh, at its first performance, was so warmly received that the audience demanded its second movement, the "Allegretto," be repeated. That then became a standard practice in Vienna, and even today, the "Allegretto" remains so popular that it is often performed on its own.

Several major composers have singled out the work for its vitality. Hector Berlioz considered it a "masterpiece—alike of technical ability, taste, fantasy, knowledge, and inspiration." Richard Wagner called it "the Apotheosis of the Dance." Many have noted that those with little or no musical training enjoy its rustic simplicity, suggestive of folk music. Antony Hopkins (1921-2014), a British composer, pianist, and conductor, widely known for his books on music, said, "The Seventh Symphony . . . gives us a feeling of true spontaneity; the notes seem to fly off the page as we are borne along on a floodtide of inspired invention. Beethoven himself spoke of it fondly as 'one of my best works.' Who are we to dispute his judgment?"