Who better than Herbert von Karajan, the Berliner Philharmoniker’s only conductor-for-life, to celebrate the 100th anniversary in 1982 of the orchestra’s founding? In this exceptional concert, the famous Austrian maestro conducts Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 “Eroica”, whose lively revolutionary character that perfectly suits the orchestra’s vast interpretive powers and corresponds well with the mood for the celebration of the founding of the trail-blazing orchestra a century before.

Experience the captivating musical partnership of the Berliner Philharmoniker under Herbert von Karajan in this exceptional performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2. Relatively obscure because of the incredible legacy of the symphonies that followed it, the Second was composed around the time when Beethoven learned that the deafness beginning to envelope him could never be cured… a dark moment captured in his Heiligenstadt Testament, an emotional letter written to his brothers in which he confided his desperation and suicidal thoughts. Dedicated to his patron, the former Mozart student Karl Lichnowsky, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 is shaped by the symphonic tradition founded by Mozart, whose works the younger composer greatly admired. The Second marks the end of a musical age and the dawning of a new epoque for the symphonic genre, with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 “Eroica” coming just around the corner…

The great Beethoven specialist Herbert von Karajan leads the Berliner Philharmoniker in a once-in-a-lifetime interpretation of Beethoven’s beloved Symphony No. 3. A great admirer of the young French Republic’s ideal of liberty at the turn of the 19th century, the composer initially dedicated what was called the “Bonaparte” Symphony to the diminutive French general. Unfortunately, Beethoven’s anger and disappointment at learning that the liberator had turned into an authoritarian emperor—as Victor Hugo would put it, “the Napoleon was starting to show behind the Bonaparte” (i.e. the tyrant was beginning to show through the hero)—led him to re-baptize the symphony as the “Eroica” and dedicate it to his patron, the Prince Joseph Franz von Lobkowitz. The energy of Beethoven’s heroic gesture is incarnated in a work that intrepidly breaks with its symphonic predecessors.

Celebrated for his interpretations of Beethoven’s oeuvre, the great conductor Herbert von Karajan conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker in the composer’s Fourth Symphony. When Beethoven visited the summer residence of the famed Viennese musical patron Prince Lichnowsky, the Count Franz von Oppersdorff met the composer and fell under the spell of his Second Symphony. He offered Beethoven a considerable sum of money to compose a new symphony in the same joyous mood as the Second, leading to the genesis of the Symphony No. 4, which in turn was dedicated to Oppersdorff himself.

“It’s very big, absolutely crazy!” cried Goethe when he heard Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. The conductor Herbert von Karajan—a true connoisseur of Beethoven’s work—and the Berliner Philharmoniker present here an exceptional interpretation of the Symphony No. 5. Despite suffering from worsening deafness at the time of the masterpiece’s composition, Beethoven persevered and would succesfully complete his project of a large orchestral work defined by four fateful notes… as he would later explain this particular musical obsession, “this is the way that destiny knocks at the door”!

In 1805, Beethoven wrote to a dear friend in anticipation of a visit to the countryside about “how delighted I shall be to ramble for a while through bushes, woods, under trees, through grass, and around rocks! No one can love the country as much as I do. For surely woods, trees, and rocks produce the echo which man desires to hear.” Just three years later, his magnificent homage to nature, the celebrated Symphony No. 6, received its premiere. Baptised as the “Pastoral” Symphony by Beethoven himself, the work comes to life in this brilliant interpretation by the great Maestro Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Incredibly popular since the day of its premiere (conducted by Beethoven himself!), the Seventh Symphony is one of the composer’s most rhythmic and dancing works. Maestro Karajan, great connoisseur of the composer’s work, and the Berliner Philharmoniker present here a truly exceptional interpretation.