Programme:

Ludwig van Beethoven Egmont Overture Op.84

Max Bruch Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor, Op.26

Interval

Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No.7 in A Major, Op.92 "The Apotheosis of Dance"

• I   Vivace
• II  Allegretto
• III Presto meno assai
• IV Allegro con brio

Program notes 

Egmont op. 84 was composed in 1810 and is part of the stage music for the homonymous tragedy by Goethe. It is incontestably one of Beethoven's greatest overtures. He began writing it with some restraint after receiving an order from the theatre. The overture has a programmatic role. It starts with a slow introduction- Sostenuto ma non troppo - where the first theme is presented as a contrast between two images.

Max Bruch's Violin Concerto in G Minor is a young man's creation. Bruch may have begun it in his teens, and he completed it in 1866 when he was 28.Bruch called the first movement a Vorspiel or Prelude. Dark drama unfolds over the deep rumble of the timpani as the soloist introduces himself in a series of free recitative-like phrases soaring upward on the violin's warmest G-string. That second-movement Adagio is the beating heart of this concerto with the soloist as lyric poet: singer of the secrets of the human soul. In the finale, a hushed, expectant orchestral opening builds excitement for one of the most captivating themes ever created for violin: a stomping, fiery Hungarian dance tune. 

Symphony No. 7 in A major op. 92, named "The Apotheosis of Dance" by Wagner, was begun in 1809 and was finalized in the summer of 1812. it is a composition reflecting Beethoven's unparalleled wisdom. This is the moment when we identify a new stage in the composer's creation, where classical elements intertwine with romantic ones, thus generating a new expression far more intimate and more complex. 

In his earlier works, Beethoven was a Classicist in the traditions of Mozart and Haydn (his tutor), but his Middle Period, beginning with his third symphony (the 'Eroica'), bridges the worlds of Classical and Romantic music. Because Beethoven wrote some of his greatest music after he became totally deaf, he embodies the Romantic ideal of the tragic artist who defies all odds to conquer his own fate.