Events Calendar
Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn
Haydn L'Isola Disabitata: Overture
Mozart Clarinet Concerto
Beethoven Symphony No. 3, 'Eroica'
Jamie Phillips Conductor
Katherine Lacy Clarinet
The RPO is joined by conductor Jamie Phillips for Beethoven’s Symphony No.3. Originally saw the piece as an epic and revolutionary new path in music – inspired by the hope of a new, more democratic France led by Napoleon, but then Napoleon declared himself ‘Emperor’. Beethoven was furious! He shouted ‘Now he will also trample all human rights underfoot, and only pander to his own ambition; he will place himself above everyone else and become a tyrant.’ He scratched out the dedication to Napoleon and the symphony came to have the name ‘Eroica’.
Composed in his final year, during a period of remarkable productivity that also produced The Magic Flute, Mozart’s ever-popular 1791 Clarinet Concerto was the master’s last major instrumental composition. It is widely considered one of the greatest compositions written for woodwind and will be performed tonight by Katherine Lacy.
Joseph Haydn’s L’isola disabitata was his tenth opera, best remembered for a surging ‘Sturm und Drang’ G minor overture, which is almost a mini-symphony in itself.