London Philharmonic Orchestra

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Beethoven: Overture, Fidelio
Schoenberg: Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte
Schoenberg: A Survivor from Warsaw
Nono: Julius Fučík
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5

Vladimir Jurowski: conductor
Robert Hayward: narrator (Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte & A Survivor from Warsaw)
Omar Ebrahim: Fučík (Julius Fučík)
Malcom Sinclair: Voice (Julius Fučík)
Annabel Arden: director
Gentlemen of the London Philharmonic Choir

Few composers have done more to overthrow tyrannies both real and creative than Schoenberg and Beethoven. Images of the misuse of power pervade Schoenberg’s outspoken Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte, a cutting, visceral creation after Byron that was created in political circumstances but more functionally designed to mark 20 years of the League of Composers. Most members of that organisation had been freed to some extent by the theoretical upheavals of Beethoven, whose mighty Fifth Symphony changed the way music was conceived – in the head and on the stage. Freedom reigns in this evening of powerful musical gestures.