Using four notes as the undercarriage of an entire symphony was a revolutionary idea when the piece premiered in 1808. So was the introspective writing that makes the music so indelible.
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Watch Daniel Barenboim conduct Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in 2012 at the BBC Proms:
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Some of CPR Classical's favorite recordings of Symphony No. 5:
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Host Monika Vischer on Symphony No. 5:
The power. The drive. The relentless determination.
Beethoven keeps those four notes in his back pocket and uses them again and again in different guises throughout the Fifth.
They weave into a larger fabric of emotional intensity that reflected a continent in upheaval when Beethoven composed them in 1807.
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