For our March 4 concert the SSO will present probably the most famous symphony in existence, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. At the time he was composing this work, Beethoven was full of the sort of determination that comes from feeling a special calling to express something for posterity. And he built an entire symphony, all four movements, with some degree of connection to the opening rhythmic and melodic idea. This giant struggle with fate, as Beethoven writes that he felt, is contrasted in the music of Mendelssohn. Composition seems to have come fairly easily—and early—for him. The Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a stand-alone work Mendelssohn wrote when he was 17, presents the characters from the Shakespeare play in stark contrast to one another. This imaginative work will be followed by portions of other pieces written later as incidental music for a stage production of the play. Fate, in Beethoven, and fantasy, in Mendelssohn.
Students attend this concert FREE of charge
