Tír Na HiFi

A lovely night's listening is in store for us on Paddy Eve:

Presented by Petroc Trelawny
In this concert in their Beethoven Symphonies Series given at the Royal Festival Hall in London, Iván Fischer conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Beethoven's Symphonies Nos 1, 5 and 8.
Here's it is partnered with two of Beethoven's lighter, more sprightly symphonies, Numbers 1 and 8.

Beethoven Symphony No 1 in C
Beethoven Symphony No 8 in F
Beethoven Symphony No 5 in C minor
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Iván Fischer, conductor

Followed by a selection of Sibelius's smaller works.

I tuned in to this concert this evening and by and large I was very impressed and enjoyed it. I just felt that the opening of the concert i.e. the first two movements of Symphony No. 1 were played far too slowly. This can often happen Beethoven who I feel needs quite a bit of tempo for best effect. However the tempo picked up in the third movement and carried on to the end of the work. Symphony No. 8 was well paced and well played and Symphony No. 5 was, I felt, a particularly fine performance and was very enjoyable....a good evening’s listening!

I was really looking forward to these performances and I missed them.....family matters...AAAARGH! What a pity.

A pity indeed Seán....perhaps they will be on that Listen Again thingy????