Performance by the Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 4, Op.60
Symphony No.5, Op.67
Adrian Sylveen, conductor
(Live Performance)

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Notes about the project: It is not easy to add to the richness of things written about Ludwig van Beethoven, not in the form of CD cover notes.

When Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra undertook the project of performing these symphonies, we took a perhaps unorthodox approach. We wanted to demonstrate that the score can be realized successfully by a chamber orchestra, and at the same time show the profoundly personal character of these works. 

Music of Beethoven is most of all a lasting testimony to his personal and emotional struggle. He cannot be understood without our strong sense of empathy for his sickness, his complicated personality, and the universality of his values expressed through the lens of his times. 

For me, both pieces presented here are reflections of an uncommon and complicated man. These complexities and conflicts are apparent, beyond the musical score, more acutely through the perspective of our own times of struggle, times of our own unresolved conflicts, and ongoing, sometimes quite violent forms of social discussion.

The unique conversation continues here also between Beethoven and us, transcending the music and time, and allowing us – in some way – to continue the dialogue with the composer about who we are as people, and who we are trying to become.

I chose to start the CD with the 5th symphony because I wanted to open the experience with the clearest possible statement of Beethoven’s ideas. We hope that this recording will give the listener both a pleasure and a sense of interaction across the centuries of our cultural exchange of ideas.

Recorded Live in 2013 & 2015
(c) Connecticut Virtuosi. All rights reserved