It Shall Certainly Not Bend and Crush Me Completely
The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment pairs Beethoven’s defiant Fifth with the lively Fourth – described by Berlioz as having a ‘celestial sweetness’.
The Fifth Symphony picks up where the Eroica (No. 3) ends, in both psychological and musical senses.
Dark-toned, potent and radical, this is Beethoven the warrior putting on the armour of C minor to, as he writes to his brothers, ‘seize fate by the throat; it shall certainly not bend and crush me completely’. Its finale is triumphantly reinforced by the appearance of trombones, piccolo and contrabassoon for the first time in a symphony.
In the Fourth Symphony, meanwhile, we meet the Beethoven who was capable of so much lightness, intoxicated perhaps with the possibility of love.
Adam Fischer has quietly developed a reputation as one of the foremost interpreters of 18th- and 19th-century symphonic repertoire. His recording of all 104 Haydn symphonies in Esterhaza with his own Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra is the stuff of legends, and has only been amplified by his cycles of Mahler, Brahms and Beethoven.
Performers
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Adam Fischer conductor
Repertoire
Beethoven: Symphony No.4
Interval
Beethoven: Symphony No.5
Need to know
Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer at 6pm: pre-concert talk with Adrian Bending (principal timpani) and members of the orchestra. Admission free.
Reviews
‘a symphonie sunburst that might just carry me through the grey months into spring’ The Times (on the OAE’s performance with Adam Fischer of Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony)
For your visit
This event is held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall Southbank Centre
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is open from 90 minutes before events start until they finish. It’s closed at all other times.
Plan your visit
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is home to both our second-largest auditorium and the Purcell Room.
Getting here
Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.
The nearest tube stations to us are Waterloo and Embankment; Waterloo is also the nearest train station. And more than 20 different London bus routes pass within 500 metres of our venues. More information on getting here by rail, road or river is available on our Getting here page.
We’re cash-free
Please note that we’re unable to accept cash payments across our venues.
Access
We’re working hard to remove barriers, so that our facilities and events can be accessible to as many people as possible.
All help points, toilets, performance and exhibition spaces at the Southbank Centre are accessible to all, as are the cafes, bars and restaurants. We also have excellent public transport links with step-free access.
All information about booking wheelchair spaces, step-free access, blue badge parking, access maps and guides and other help available whilst you’re here, including details about our Access Scheme, can be found on our Access page.
Food & drink
From coffee to cocktails, filling favourites to fine dining, plus some of London’s best street food – it’s all here at the Southbank Centre.