Coming between two of Beethoven’s most famous symphonies the Fourth Symphony can seem a relatively lightweight and cheerful work. Written for Count Franz von Oppersdorff, who wanted a symphony similar in vein to the Second Symphony it is a brusque and enjoyable work. Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony sees him in playful mood. Featuring humorous twists and turns and relatively brief movements, including the shortest movement of any of his symphonies, it is a lighthearted work.

Bernard Haitink is internationally renowned for his interpretations of Bruckner and is widely recognized as the world’s leading Bruckner conductor.

Bruckner’s Symphony No 4 (‘Romantic’) conjures up visions of mediaeval knights, huntsmen and enchanted woodland, particularly through the prominent use of the horn in the work. One of his most popular pieces, it was treated to many revisions by the composer and this recording features the second version of the 1877/8 Nowak edition (published 1953) with the 1880 Finale.

LSO Live celebrates the 90th birthday of one of the conducting world’s greats, Bernard Haitink. Few artists have a deeper understanding of the music of Beethoven than the celebrated Dutch conductor, who is known for his mastery of the great symphonic repertoire. This album focuses on Haitink’s interpretations of Beethoven’s concerto writing, coupling a new recording of Piano Concerto No 2 by Maria João Pires with a virtuosic performance of the Triple Concerto by Lars Vogt, Gordan Nikolitch and Tim Hugh, which was originally made alongside Haitink’s now iconic cycle of the composer’s complete symphonies.

Much is made of the revolutionary nature of Beethoven’s Third Symphony. It marked the transition to a more complex symphonic world for the composer, and simultaneously embodied his admiration for the ideals of the French revolution: the symphony’s one-time dedicatee was Napoleon Bonaparte.

Napoleon had to be erased from the symphony’s title page once his overweening imperial ambition became known. It also suited Beethoven to ditch the reference, given that he could then earn a royal patron’s fee from another quarter (the ultimate dedicatee is Prince Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowitz). The concept of the third symphony as something ‘heroic’ nonetheless remained, and its published title became the ‘Sinfonia eroica’ instead of ‘the Bonaparte’.

The work is rightly admired for its ground-breaking attributes, formal innovations and harmonic shocks, but this particular recording has another revolutionary dimension. No stranger to Beethoven symphonies, Bernard Haitink took a completely new approach to this cycle, adopting more daring Beethovenian tempi as well as reining in the customarily full sound of the symphony orchestra to something sparer. The rhythmic audacity and percussive qualities of the work are that much clearer as a result, the reading nimbler. If Napoloen was the hidden hero of the symphony, the time in which he lived feels that much closer with this fabulously vigorous interpretation.

Beethoven’s opera ‘Fidelio’ was subject to revision a number of times and the composer wrote a total of four overtures for it. Only one of them became the official Fidelio overture, the other three bearing the title ‘Leonora”, an allusion to the opera’s heroine. Leonora Overture No. 2 was written for the performance of Fidelio in 1805, not quite two years after the completion of the Eroica. It makes an interesting foil for the symphony. –James Mallinson, LSO Live Producer