Beethoven 200: The Ruins of Athens

Saturday 27 November 2027 - 7:30pm

The Tung Auditorium

Yoko Ono Lennon Centre

University of Liverpool

60 Oxford Street

Liverpool

L7 3NY

Hope Metropolitan Orchestra

Conducted by Stephen Pratt and Helen Thomas

Hope Metropolitan Singers (director Jess Atkinson)

Soloists (soprano and bass) tba

Like the work of nearly all C19^th 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. This attractive symphony has echoes of Beethoven, and perhaps more noticeably Ferrenc’s contemporary, Schumann.

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.