Symphony No. 4 in B-b Major, Op. 60
Public premiere: Vienna, April 1808
1 flute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings
***
Adagio/Allegro vivace
Adagio
Allegro molto e vivace
Allegro ma non troppo
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
After writing his groundbreaking Third Symphony, the Eroica, Beethoven did not complete a new symphony for almost three years. By that time, he had already begun sketching ideas for another revolutionary work, his famous Fifth Symphony, but he temporarily set that aside for a commission. In the summer of 1806, he met Count Franz von Oppersdorff, who had heard Beethoven's pre-Eroica second symphony and offered him 350 florins to write a similar work in that earlier style. The result was his Symphony No. 4, which was first played at a private concert in March of 1807 and then given its public premiere in Vienna at the Burgtheater in April of 1808.
It is a great work that had the misfortune to be born between two revolutionary giants, the Third Symphony (Eroica) and the Fifth Symphony, which was premiered later in that same year of 1808 -- or, as Schumann later put it, it is "a slender Greek maiden between two huge Nordic giants." As a result, the Fourth Symphony has never been played as frequently as Beethoven's other symphonies, despite the fact that is a brilliant work much admired by Mendelssohn, Schumann and Berlioz, among others. This is lighthearted, youthful music, full of invention and unexpected turns. Beethoven takes us into distant keys with astonishing ease, and, in the third movement Scherzo, he extends the usual three-part A-B-A form to the larger five-part form that he would use in later works. The virtuosic finale ends with a Beethovenian joke, slowing down the theme, pausing several times, and then making a mad dash to the end.
Boston Baroque Performances
Symphony No. 4 in Bb, Op. 60
May 6 & 7, 2005
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor