with Dr. Paul Kim, Professor of Music, L.I. University
Date: Wednesday, July 23
Time: 2:00 P.M.
Beethoven’s last symphony, first performed in 1842, sums up all that the composer had lived and learned. A critic of his day said, “The piece has everything—worlds seem to collide…here are the birth pangs of a new musical art.” With its groundbreaking vocal parts synthesized into an orchestral fabric and the setting to music of Schiller’s poetry, the work has had a profound influence in cultural realms throughout modern history. Focusing on the last movement, Dr. Kim will examine the amazing way in which Beethoven wrote a ‘symphony within a symphony.” He will discuss this masterwork in its historical, compositional, and performance contexts—with examples on the piano, on recordings, and on a DVD of a complete presentation.