Hope Metropolitan Concerts | 27 November 2027

BEETHOVEN 200: THE RUINS OF ATHENS

Hope Metropolitan Orchestra and Singers

Conductors: Stephen Pratt* and Helen Thomas**

Choir Director: Jess Atkinson

Louise Farrenc: Symphony No. 1**

Beethoven: The Ruins of Athens*

Like the work of nearly all C19th women composers, the music of Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) suffered from years of neglect but has more recently benefitted from deserving re-appraisal and extensive research. The first symphony was written in 1841, a year before she was appointed a professor at the Paris Conservatoire. A virtuoso pianist, she is said to have specialised in Beethoven’s music. 

The Ruins of Athens, a set of pieces for soloists, chorus and orchestra, was written to accompany a play of the same name by Anton von Kotzebue for the opening night of the German Theatre in Budapest in 1812. It is on a grand scale and includes a famous Turkish March. This rarely heard and exciting work ends our Beethoven 200 year. Beethoven died in 1827, by then recognised as the greatest composer in Europe, and a status that – for many – still holds.

Hope Metropolitan Concerts