Valentin Gheorghiu plays Beethoven Choral Fantasy (I)

Beethoven Fantasy for Piano, Choir & Orchestra in C minor, op.80 Valentin Gheorghiu, piano Cluj Napoca Symphony Orchestra & Choir Emil Simon, conductor. 1985 ~~~ The first performance of Fantasy, op.80, was quite extraordinary: over a period of four hours, the audience heard the first performances of Beethovens 5th and 6th symphonies, the piano concerto No.4 and movements from the Mass in C. However, the evening was not without its problems. Ferdinand Ries, a musician, composer and close acquaintance of Beethoven, describes the concert: "Beethoven gave a large concert on 22 December 1808 in the Theater an der Wien at which were performed for the first time the C minor and Pastoral Symphonies as well as his Fantasia for Piano with orchestra and chorus. In this last work, at the place where the last beguiling theme appears already in a varied form, the clarinet player made, by mistake, a repeat of eight bars. Since only a few instruments were playing, this error was all the more evident to the ear. Beethoven leaped up in a fury, turned around and abused the orchestra players in the coarsest terms and so loudly that he could be heard throughout the auditorium. Finally, he shouted from the beginning! The theme began again, everyone came in properly, and the success was great. But when the concert was finished the artists, remembering only too well the honourable title which Beethoven had bestowed on them in public, fell into a great rage, as if the offence had just occurred ...

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