Time and familiarity, those old enemies of innovation, have conspired to mellow the impact of Beethoven’s Fifth on the modern ear. This most famous of classical orchestral pieces has often been in danger of acquiring from frequent repetition a cosiness and a friendliness that can dull its surprises, soften its blows.

Yet this is the same work which caused the French composer Jean-Francois Le Sueur to be so bowled over when he first heard it in 1828 that, on reaching afterwards for his hat, he could not find his head. His pupil Berlioz (to whom we owe this anecdote) visited him the next day to be told by an impressed but evidently disturbed Le Sueur that ’that sort of music should not be written’.

London Symphony Orchestra
Bernard Haitink, Conductor