Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra: Online Concert Programme | Thu 1 Oct 2026

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Symphony No. 1

1. Adagio molto – Allegro con brio
2. Andante cantabile con moto
3. Menuetto: Allegro molto e vivace
4. Adagio – Allegro molto e vivace

It is quite a challenge to listen to Beethoven’s First Symphony without being conscious of the eight more that followed. We can easily be distracted by looking for seeds of development and under-appreciate what a flowering of creativity this work already is. We assume perhaps that Beethoven’s first attempt must be a work of youthful promise rather than any great achievement in itself.

But at 30 years old, Beethoven was not especially young when he wrote this symphony, which was first performed in Vienna on 2 April 1800. In terms of orchestral experience, he had already composed his first two piano concertos as well as making two attempts at a symphony prior to this one. At a similar age, Schubert had completed all nine of his symphonies and Mozart all but his final three. It is as if Beethoven had decided that revolutionising the symphonic form was going to be one of his lasting legacies and by making sure he was as prepared as possible before he began, was determined that this ambition would be clear from the very start.

And what a start it is! It is familiar to us now but at the time many would have been startled by the fact that the opening chord is not the main harmony of the work. Haydn and Mozart wrote plenty of surprising things of course, but their surprises seem inevitable and universal. Beethoven’s on the other hand feel shocking, and certainly more personal – always autographed, even if not necessarily autobiographical. His symphonic arrival neatly coincides with the start of a bold new century, and he announces himself with a gesture that brilliantly combines both daring and respect. ‘Haydn and Mozart,’ he declares, ‘yes, but…’

The opening to the first movement is not the only novelty in the work. The speed and spirit of the third movement are more an expression of mood than anything that could be actually danced to, a response perhaps to Haydn’s suggestion that this part of the symphony was ripe for reinvention. And by adding an introduction to the last movement, Beethoven raises its stakes a little, giving it extra significance within the structure as a whole. This was an idea not appreciated by one conductor who, in 1809, omitted these opening bars through fear that they might make audiences laugh. Heaven forbid!

Beethoven had travelled to Vienna from his home in Bonn in 1792 and, according to his friend and patron Count Waldstein, would there receive ‘the spirit of Mozart through the hands of Haydn’. There is certainly a great deal in his first symphony that sounds like a seamless continuation of Mozart’s final one. But the originality of the work is Beethoven through and through. The road to joy has well and truly begun.

© Mark Wigglesworth

Richard Wagner (1813-1883): The Ring: An Orchestral Adventure

Arranged by Henk de Vlieger (b 1953)

Wagner worked on his cycle of four music dramas, The Ring of the Nibelung, between 1848 and 1874, though he interrupted this enormous project in 1856, turning his attention to Tristan and Isolde, completed in 1859. He habitually wrote both texts and music for his operas. Here in The Ring, Norse sagas and the German Nibelungenlied served as his sources, Wagner intending the four music dramas to be performed on successive nights. The first two were premiered separately in 1869 and 1870 respectively, then the complete cycle was given at the first Bayreuth Festival in August 1876.

In 1991 the Dutch composer and arranger Henk de Vlieger devised ‘an orchestral adventure’ based on the music of The Ring and comprising fourteen excerpts: ‘Prelude’, ‘The Rhinegold’, ‘Home of the Nibelungs’, ‘Valhalla’, ‘The Valkyries’, ‘Magic Fire’, ‘Forest Murmurs’, ‘Siegfried’s Heroic Deed’, ‘Brünnhilde’s Awakening’, ‘Siegfried and Brünnhilde’, ‘Siegfried’s Journey down the Rhine’, ‘Siegfried’s Death’, ‘Funeral Music’ and ‘Brünnhilde’s Immolation Scene’. In his ‘orchestral adventure’ de Vlieger has linked the most important orchestral passages. Occasionally a vocal line has been replaced by wind instruments. In order to create smooth transitions de Vlieger has been obliged to compose different modulations and has sometimes modified Wagner’s original orchestration. In this arrangement de Vlieger reduces about 15 hours of music to about one hour.

The four passages from Das Rheingold (The Rhinegold), begin with the ‘Prelude’, entirely based on a chord of E flat and depicting a sunrise. In The Rhinegold section, lively and joyful, the dwarf Alberich steals the gold from the Rhine-maidens to melt it down and forge the magical and powerful Ring. Wotan tears the Ring from his finger, but Alberich lays a curse on it until it is returned to him. In ‘The Home of the Nibelungs’, an excerpt of restless character, Alberich forces his fellow-dwarves to mine for more gold. In ‘Valhalla’, the final extract from The Rhinegold, the gods ascend the rainbow bridge to their new home in the sky.

De Vlieger’s extracts from the second opera, Die Walküre – (The Valkyries) comprise ‘The Ride of the Valkyries’, the most famous passage from the entire Ring cycle, and the music evoking the ‘Magic Fire’. Wotan has punished his defiant daughter Brünnhilde by encircling her with a ring of fire which only the bravest hero will penetrate.

The section drawn from Siegfried, the third opera, begins with ‘Forest Murmurs’, in which solo woodwind instruments impressionistically evoke birdcalls above murmuring strings. Then we hear ‘Siegfried’s Heroic Deed’, initially based on Siegfried’s horn-call and developing into a passage of optimistic, fearless character. In ‘Brünnhilde’s Awakening’ by Siegfried, Wagner accumulates an atmosphere of expectation before Siegfried’s kiss rouses her, and she falls deeply in love with her hero-saviour.

Five passages from the final opera, Götterdämmerung (The Twilight of the Gods) follow. The potent chemistry between the lovers is at first evoked by Wagner in his tenderest vein, becoming increasingly passionate. Siegfried undertakes his ‘Rhine Journey’ in search of new adventures but, having ignored a warning to give up the Ring, meets his death when Hagen (Alberich’s son) stabs him in the back. Siegfried’s dying farewell to Brünnhilde is followed by his imposing ‘Funeral Music’. Hagen tries to steal the Ring from Siegfried’s finger, but Brünnhilde seizes it and promises to return it to the Rhinemaidens. She builds a fire from logs and rides her horse Grane into the flames – the ‘Immolation Scene’. The blaze spreads and Valhalla, home of the Gods, is destroyed.

© Philip Borg-Wheeler