Program
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Overture ‘Coriolanus’ in C minor, Op. 62 (1807)
Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Op. 60 (1806)
Adagio – Allegro vivace
Adagio
Allegro vivace
Allegro ma non troppo
Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 (1811–1812)
Poco sostenuto – Vivace
Allegretto
Presto
Allegro con brio
Performers:
The musicAeterna Orchestra
Conductor Teodor Currentzis
Details
On tour in China in autumn 2026, the musicAeterna Orchestra conducted by Teodor Currentzis will perform two programmes with music by Mozart and Beethoven. Music by the Viennese classics will be performed at the authentic tuning of A=430 Hz on historical instruments.
The programme dedicated to Beethoven will open with the overture Coriolanus, which loosely evokes the imagery of a play about a Roman commander. At its centre is a hero fighting his enemies, his fate, and himself. The tragic overture was first performed alongside Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4, creating a striking contrast between the two works.
Beethoven’s Fourth is unusually bright, free of conflict, and ‘Haydnesque’. It has remained in the shadow of the ‘Heroic’ Third and dramatic Fifth. Romantic composers, however, particularly admired the symphony’s introduction to the first movement: its languid wanderings in the gloomy key of B-flat minor, the dark key of death. The melodious Adagio resembles a Romantic chamber song, while the cheerful minuet and impetuous finale bridge the gap between the music of the late Haydn and the fantastical scherzos of Mendelssohn and Berlioz.
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 is a recognised masterpiece, and its celebrated second movement, the Allegretto, is often used today as a canonical funeral march. The musicAeterna Orchestra has repeatedly returned to this composition, performing it in Russia and at the Salzburg Festival and recording it for the Sony Classical label. In cinemas, audiences can see footage of an experiment that brought together a live performance of the symphony and a dance performance by Sasha Waltz’s dance company at the Delphi amphitheatre. This synthesis of music, dance, and ancient architecture is no coincidence: Teodor Currentzis has compared the structural perfection of Symphony No. 7 with classical architecture, whose overall proportions and every detail embody spiritual beauty. According to him, this work possesses ‘the highest form that symphonies have ever achieved.’