The Heroes Journey: Beethoven and Dvořák

Samy Moussa: Elysium
Dvořák: Violin Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 Eroica

Gabriel Bebeşelea: Conductor
Alena Baeva: Violin

Heroes are dangerous – they can inspire us to great things, or, if they stumble, shatter our illusions. Elysium by Samy Moussa finds us in the everlasting paradise where heroes dwell; majestic, virtuous and ecstatically triumphant.

Beethoven’s Third Symphony lost its original dedication when Napoleon turned from hero to villain and the epigraph simply became ‘Heroic... dedicated to the memory of a great man’; this extraordinary, revolutionary symphony makes a hero of Beethoven himself. Dvořák’s Violin Concerto was not written for a hero so much as a friend and collaborator in Joseph Joachim and it is bursting with Czech folk music influences, especially in its skirling, dancing final movement.

Doors open: 6.30pm approx.
Concert start: 7.45pm
Concert end: 9.45pm approx.