Symphonie Nr.5

Leonard Bernstein conducted regularly in Munich since the 1980s. At that time, he came to particularly appreciate and love the Symphonieorkest van de Bayerische Rundfunk. Following a performance in October 1976, in which Bernstein presented a program entirely devoted to Beethoven, a series of annual concerts began in 1983. The present CD from BR-KLASSIK presents the live recording of the Beethoven concert of 17 October 1976, in which Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and the Leonore Overture No. 3. On the program of the concert in Munich in October 1976 was Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which abstractly depicts a triumph of liberation in the sense of "per aspera ad astra" ("through the rough to the stars" or "through darkness to the light"). In addition, a symphonic piece that Beethoven wrote for his only opera, "Fidelio": the third Leonore Overture, with the striking signal trumpet that announces the arrival of minister Don Fernando – and thus the rescue of Florestan from arbitrary violence and imprisonment. The Munich critic in chief at the time, Joachim Kaiser, stated: "Bernstein showed a captivated listening Munich audience to what extent he is freely and passionately filled with productive-reproductive engagement with Beethoven. Although it may seem violent to restless souls, the way Bernstein commits himself, jumps, becomes small, creates crescendos: the inner rightness of the music that thereby sounds completely natural, powerful, magnificent and free is overwhelming." The live recording was made on 17 October 1976 in the Deutsche Museum in Munich.