At the podium, DenГЁve kept everything moving along smoothly, making it easy to forget how episodic GreigвЂ™s writing is (he was, letвЂ™s face it, not a master of the larger musical forms). Roger KazaвЂ™s horn had a warm, lush sound in the second movement, for example, and Adam SandberryвЂ™s flute solo in the third movementвЂ™s bucolic interlude was a gem. Speaking of the orchestra, letвЂ™s not forget that the concerto includes a fair number of opportunities for individual players and sections to shine. And his playing overall was a model of clarity. His concentration on both DenГЁve and the orchestra was intense. His version of the famous first movement cadenza was a study in extremes, nearly coming to a complete halt before building steadily to the boiling power of the big restatement of the main theme. A veritable ball of physical energy, Г“lafsson at some points bent so close to the keyboard that his face nearly touched the keys, yet at others seemed ready to leap from the bench in an explosion of passion. Soloist VГkingur Г“lafsson made quite a stunning impression in his local debut with a performance that blended nuance and poetry with virtuoso flair. But we also got a Greig Piano Concerto that simply could not be beat. If this had been the only killer performance of the evening, that would have been enough. DenГЁveвЂ™s interpretation was filled with delicious details, including an Andante con moto second movement that was imbued with the spirit of the dance-something I havenвЂ™t always heard in this work. Highlights of this glorious performance include the superhuman precision of the lower strings in the rapid fugal passages in the third movement, Jelena DirksвЂ™s brief but beautiful oboe cadenza in the first movement, and the truly epic sound of the brasses and Thomas JГ¶stleinвЂ™s horn section. It was too compelling, too dazzlingly executed, and just too much fun to take time out to scribble in a notebook.

From that famous four note phrase at the beginning right through to the devil-may-care triumph of the coda (taken at the hair-raising speed the composer had in mind), this was a Beethoven Fifth that made critical niceties like taking notes virtually impossible. Over the centuries, alas, many conductors decided that those tempi were unreasonably fast, with the result that the Fifth has sometimes lost the visceral thrill it was supposed to have. 5 and added metronome markings to the score.

So much so that in 1817 he went back to earlier works like the Symphony No. Patented in 1815 by the composer's sometime friend Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, the device for accurately indicating a musical tempo was happily adopted by Beethoven. But, as DenГЁve proved with his stunning Beethoven Ninth last February, вЂњit ainвЂ™t necessarily soвЂќ-especially when you pay attention to BeethovenвЂ™s directions about tempi.ДЄs DenГЁve points out, Beethoven was an early adopter of what was, in the early 19th century, a cutting-edge piece of technology-the metronome. The Beethoven Fifth has become such a familiar work that it might seem impossible to do anything truly revolutionary with it. Here in the USA, sadly, we seem to have recently decided that only the first word matters, so itвЂ™s good to be reminded of the principles that were at the heart of both their revolution and ours. ThatвЂ™s still the national motto in France, in fact. He never did, but his fifth symphony was nevertheless inspired by the French RevolutionвЂ™s values of вЂњ libertГ©, egalitГ©, fraternitГ©вЂќ (freedom, equality, brotherhood). The symphonyвЂ™s structure, its obsessive energy, and even (as Joshua Wallerstein suggests in a recent episode of his вЂњSticky NotesвЂќ podcast) its musical content were all revolutionary.ДЄs Music Director StГ©phane DenГЁve pointed out in his pre-concert remarks, Beethoven once contemplated actually relocating to France. 5-was when it first saw the light of day back in December 1808, even if it probably wasnвЂ™t apparent at its disastrous premiere at the end of a four-hour marathon in the unheated Theater an der Wein.

That is, after all, what the concluding work on the program-BeethovenвЂ™s Symphony No. But maybe the best choice would be вЂњrevolutionary.вЂќ Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) concert last Saturday night (November 13) in one word, it would probably be something along the lines of exciting, electrifying, or stunning. If I were called upon to summarize the St.

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