THE 5TH — MOVEMENT II, From Struggle to Victory

Switched on Pop

In the first movement of his famous symphony, Beethoven sets up a battle between hope and despair. The dark side of that spectrum is represented by the anguished opening notes of the first movement: DUN DUN DUNNN. Over the course of the next three movements, Beethoven keeps trying to overcome his dark fate with bright major melodies, and keeps getting defeated.

With each high and low, we begin to understand that this battle isn't just about major and minor keys, it's about the will to live in the face of adversity. How do you perform such an emotional rollercoaster? We talk to the members of the New York Philharmonic about what it's like to sound a symphony whose stakes are life and death.

Jaap van Zweden, Conductor

Leelanee Sterrett, Horn

Kyle Zerna, Percussion

Frank Huang, Violin

Anthony McGill, Clarinet

Sherry Sylar, Oboe

Recording of The New York Philharmonic performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 conducted by Jaap van Zweden used by permission from Decca Gold.

Hear new episodes of our four-part miniseries The 5th every Tuesday and Friday starting September 8th.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

More description

In the first movement of his famous symphony, Beethoven sets up a battle between hope and despair. The dark side of that spectrum is represented by the anguished opening notes of the first movement: DUN DUN DUNNN. Over the course of the next three movements, Beethoven keeps trying to overcome his dark fate with bright major melodies, and keeps getting defeated.

With each high and low, we begin to understand that this battle isn't just about major and minor keys, it's about the will to live in the face of adversity. How do you perform such an emotional rollercoaster? We talk to the members of the New York Philharmonic about what it's like to sound a symphony whose stakes are life and death.

Jaap van Zweden, Conductor

Leelanee Sterrett, Horn

Kyle Zerna, Percussion

Frank Huang, Violin

Anthony McGill, Clarinet

Sherry Sylar, Oboe

Recording of The New York Philharmonic performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 conducted by Jaap van Zweden used by permission from Decca Gold.

Hear new episodes of our four-part miniseries The 5th every Tuesday and Friday starting September 8th.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

2020-09-11 27 min
Listen elsewhere

Available Results

Generated results are saved to your library for reuse and search.

No generated results are available for this episode yet.

Transcript

No transcript is available for this episode yet.
Sign in to generate a transcript for review.
Sign in

Chapters

No chapters available.