Playing Beethoven’s Fifth – Firebrand Performance

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor performed by Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. An orchestra founded in 1989 by John Eliot Gardiner, specialising in classical and romantic music using the principles and original instruments of historically informed performance. 00:00 – John Eliot Gardiner’s Introduction 02:21 – Principals Rehearsal 09:18 – Movement I – Allegro con brio 16:07 – Movement II – Andante con moto 24:46 – Movement III – Scherzo – Allegro 32:13 – Movement IV – Allegro John started a period instrument orchestra because at that time symphony orchestras were still playing Beethoven as though he was a much later 19th century romantic composer, rather than the firebrand that we all know that he really was. This is the quality that they aspire to capture in rehearsals and performance of this symphony. By playing his music on instruments that Beethoven himself would have heard and recognised, paradoxically you’re getting back to something much more raw, m