About the Concert

Richard Wagner called the symphony an "apotheosis", i.e. a glorification of dance. This is easy to understand. The 6/8 time in the first movement is reminiscent of skipping. The scherzo has something of a perpetuum mobile, and the speeding finale is bursting with power. But the symphony doesn't have much to do with the cheerfulness of the dance. In it, Beethoven dealt with his time, in which Napoleon was ravaging Europe with war and hardly a stone was left unturned. Traces of this can still be found on Dresden's Schlossplatz in front of the Hofkirche: The paving stone with the N on it is supposed to mark the point from which Napoleon took a parade of his troops before they went into battle in the Dresden suburbs.

Grades 7-12