Weekend Concert Series
Christopher Taylor, piano
Beethoven/Liszt Symphonies Project, Part III
Sunday, May 17, 2020
1:30 - 3 pm
Calderwood Hall
Sunday, May 17, 2020
1:30 - 3 pm
Calderwood Hall
This Weekend Concert has been canceled. If you have any questions, contact the Box Office at 617 278 5156.
Ludwig van Beethoven (arr. Franz Liszt), Symphony No. 5 (1808, arr. 1837/1864)
Ludwig van Beethoven (arr. Franz Liszt), Symphony No. 6, Pastoral (1808, arr. 1837/1864)
Year One of Christopher Taylor’s expedition through these astounding piano works concludes on a high point. In these two symphonies, Beethoven lays out what would become central compositional preoccupations for the rest of the 19th century: both the motivic monomania of the mighty Fifth symphony and the vivid tone-pictures of the Sixth were ideas that took fire in the minds of 19th-century artists.
Isabella Stewart Gardner idolized Beethoven. The life mask of the composer (below) is still on view at her Museum. She was also a great admirer of Liszt, and was in fact travelling to meet with him when he died suddenly. Gardner attended his funeral, supported his grieving family, and cast the first shovel of earth onto his coffin. Also in her collection is a lock of his hair, which can be found on view in the Yellow Room.
Beethoven’s instrumental music opens to us the realm of the monstrous and immeasurable. Glowing rays shoot through the deep night of this realm, and we sense giant shadows surging to and fro, closing in on us until they destroy us, but not the pain of unending longing in which every desire that has risen quickly in joyful tones sinks and expires. Only with this pain of love, hope, joy—which consumes but does not destroy, which would burst asunder our breasts with a mightily impassioned chord—we live on, enchanted seers of the ghostly world!
— E. T. A. Hoffmann (translated by Bryan R. Simms)
Tickets are required and include Museum admission. Choose from two seating sections. See inside back cover for details.
Adults $36, seniors $33, members $24, students and children ages 7–17 $15 (children under 7 not admitted).
Adults $31, seniors $28, members $19, students and children ages 7–17 $15 (children under 7 not admitted).
For sold-out performances, standby tickets may be available in the lobby no earlier than one hour before the performance begins. We cannot guarantee availability of standby tickets for sold-out performances.
*Handling charges apply to these orders.
The Museum thanks its generous concert donors: Fitzpatrick Family Concert; James Lawrence Memorial Concert; Alford P. Rudnick Memorial Concert; Marie Louise and David Scudder Concert; Wendy Shattuck Young Artist Concert; and Willona Sinclair Memorial Concert. The piano is dedicated as the Alex d’Arbeloff Steinway. The harpsichord was generously donated by Dr. Robert Barstow in memory of Marion Huse, and its care is endowed in memory of Dr. Barstow by The Barstow Fund. The Museum is also supported in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which receives support from the State of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts.