BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, April 27, 1826

The fourth and final Concert spirituel of the season is held today, and it opens with Beethoven Symphony Nr.4 in B-flat major. The Wiener Theater-Zeitung of May 13, 1826 (Nr.57) at 231, says “Only the utterly insatiable artistic zeal of [Ferdinand Piringer, Baron von Lannoy, and Schmidt] could have brought together such a full orchestra and chorus and such excellent solo singers for such demanding productions. They sought no other reward than the cultivation and dissemination of good taste and the pleasure of a discerning audience, whose impartial appreciation they certainly did not lack.”

Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony is here played by the Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Carlos Kleiber: