Pastoral calm and Dionysiac frenzy: two sides of the same coin as Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique perform Beethoven’s Sixth and Seventh symphonies.

Birds sing, horns call and streams flow: there’s no experience in music more refreshing than Beethoven’s lovely Pastoral symphony. And there’s none more exuberantly physical than his unstoppable Seventh – the piece that made even Richard Wagner jump up and dance. It’s a dream programme for such past-masters of orchestra colour as the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, with vivid, earth-tones of period brass and woodwind instruments, bring Beethoven’s pastoral landscape to life. Think Byron in the swashbuckling Seventh. Beethoven said that he wanted his music to “intoxicate” its listeners: this should put you well over the limit.

Programme

Beethoven – Symphony No. 6 in F, ‘Pastoral Symphony’ 
Beethoven – Symphony No. 7 in A 

Performers

Dinis Sousa conductor
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique