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Beethoven from Memory

Radio 3’s Tom Service and Nicholas Collon introduce Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, and Richard Ayres’s new work that explores the effects of hearing loss.

Live at the 91Èȱ¬ Proms from the Royal Albert Hall, London
Presented by Tom Service

Richard Ayres No. 52 (Three pieces about Ludwig van Beethoven: dreaming, hearing loss and saying goodbye)
91Èȱ¬ co-commission: world premiere

Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 7 in A major

Tom Service presenter
Aurora Orchestra
Nicholas Collon conductor

Beethoven’s hearing loss plunged the composer into isolation and despair, so it’s hard to believe him capable of producing a symphony such as his Seventh, which pulses with restless energy – and which the Aurora Orchestra plays from memory. It’s a work with a special place in Proms history, too: it was the last piece Proms founder-conductor Henry Wood directed before his death in 1944.

Richard Ayres opens the concert with a deeply personal new work inspired both by Beethoven’s journey into deafness and his own experience of hearing loss, a vivid soundscape in which clarity gradually gives way to confusion.

Radio 3’s Tom Service and Aurora Orchestra Principal Conductor Nicholas Collon guide us through the programme with their customary lively and expert introductions.

2 hours, 29 minutes

Music Played

  • Richard Ayres

    No 52 (Three Pieces about Ludwig van Beethoven)

    Orchestra: Aurora Orchestra. Conductor: Nicholas Collon.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Symphony No 7 in A major

    Orchestra: Aurora Orchestra. Conductor: Nicholas Collon.
  • Arnold Bax

    The Garden of Fand

    Orchestra: Hallé. Conductor: John Barbirolli.
    • PRT.
  • Gustav Mahler

    Symphony No 2 in C minor, 'Resurrection' (1st mvt)

    Performer: David Nolan. Conductor: Klaus Tennstedt. Singer: Yvonne Kenny. Singer: Jard van Nes. Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra. Choir: London Philharmonic Choir. Conductor: Richard Cooke.
    • Tennestedt conducts Mahler Symphony No.2 'Resurrection'.
    • LPO.
    • 1.
  • Alexander von Zemlinsky

    Psalm 23, Op. 14

    Conductor: Nigel Short. Orchestra: 91Èȱ¬ Symphony Orchestra. Choir: Tenebrae.
    • Symphonic Psalms & Prayers.
    • Signum Classics.
    • 401.

CLICK BELOW FOR PROGRAMME NOTES

Broadcast

  • Thu 10 Sep 2020 19:30

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