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Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Beethoven's Fifth

From staff reports

Published: Tuesday, October 23, 2012 3:26 PM CDT
Tickets are now sale for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) performances of Beethoven's Fifth.

Music director Jaap van Zweden will lead the piece by Ludwig van Beethoven. Performances will be at 8 p.m. Nov. 1-3 and at 2:30 p.m. Nov. 4 at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora St. in Dallas.

In addition to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, the performance features Grammy-winning violinist Hilary Hahn playing Erich Korngold's Violin Concerto. The program includes Beethoven's "Leonore Overture No.3" and "Symphony No. 5" and Korngold's "Violin Concerto."

Korngold composed dozens of classic film scores during Hollywood's golden age.

"Whether or not you like movie music, you'll love this concerto, which wears its heart on its sleeve as well as any 19th-century classic. The legendary Jascha Heifetz made Korngold's concerto a signature work and audiences lapped it up. You won't be disappointed in Hilary Hahn's performance, which she'll take on a European tour with the DSO in the spring," said Dr. Laurie Shulman, DSO program annotator. "As for the rest of the program, Beethoven's our man, and with two wow works for two knockout punches. Of course there's the iconic Fifth Symphony, whose signature motive is universal. But that's just the beginning for this magnificent work, which inspires with its journey from struggle to triumph. And the Leonore Overture No.3 is equally splendid: Beethoven's finest overture, and one of the great works of symphonic literature."

Beethoven composed "Leonore Overture No. 3" for his opera, Fidelio. The overture opens with an ominous chord that depicts a descent into a dungeon where Leonore's husband was imprisoned. The ending signifies hope and freedom.

Best known for composing music for "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and many other now-classic films, Korngold was also famous in his day for his popular operas and symphonic concert music. Korngold's "Violin Concerto" opens with a violin solo. The middle romantic movement includes a conversation between the orchestra and solo.

The concert will close with one of the most recognized pieces in classical music, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Four boisterous notes known world-wide open the piece. The mood changes in the second movement, in which the orchestra plays a melody that is sweet and lyrical. Near the end of the third movement Beethoven creates suspense that continues to grow and leads straight into movement four. In the last minutes of the symphony, the famous four notes and theme from movement one are revisited.

Current ticket prices start at $21.

For information visit www.DallasSymphony.com or call 214-692-0203.





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