Beethoven and Berlioz

In 2023, Isabelle Faust and Les Siècles stunned the Muziekgebouw into silence with their performance of Ligeti’s Violin Concerto. Now, this dream combination returns with Beethoven’s iconic Violin Concerto. Isabelle Faust plays a gut string violin and the orchestra uses historical instruments to bring to light the subtle, often unheard details of Beethoven’s concerto. In this performance, Beethoven’s notes sound just as revolutionary as they did during the world premiere in 1806. 

With Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Les Siècles presents another score that changed the music world in the 19th century. The orchestra’s previous recording of this autobiographical hallucination was met with great success. ‘After the ancient Gregorian motif Dies irae (day of wrath) is hurled through in ominous fragments, you are left breathless’, de Volkskrant wrote admiringly about the CD. The live performance adds an extra layer of intensity.