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Beethovenfest 2009

October 30, 2009

Interpreting Beethoven is an ongoing process, says conductor Paavo Jarvi. Listen to excerpts of the Fifth Symphony, with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

https://p.dw.com/p/Jlq2
Paavo Jarvi
Image: Barbara Frommann

After having recently completed the CD set of the Beethoven symphony cycle and given critically acclaimed performances in Japan, the US and Canada, Paris, Salzburg, and now in Beethoven's home town of Bonn, have this conductor and these musicians reached a comfort zone with the music by now?

No, said Jarvi: "One thing we have noticed with all those cycles and recordings, when we come back and start preparing for the cycle again, is: it doesn't get easier. Sometimes you wish that it does. Sometimes you wish, 'Oh my God, we're going to spend another three hours rehearsing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. We recorded it, we played it a hundred times. Still, we have to start again and see how far we can get."

In this rendition of the final two movements from Beethoven's Fifth, music from the year 1808, "how far they get" can be measured perhaps not in inches or miles, but in light years.

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