Vladimir Tarnopolski. Be@thoven - Invocation for orchestra (2017).

Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra Valentin Uryupin, conductor When I started working on the piece on the commission of the Beethoven festival in Bonn, I tried to imagine the sound world of the late Beethoven. It is known that he felt an excruciating roar in his ears and that with the help of a hearing aid he could only hear sounds in the low register. Because of the progressive deafness, Beethoven had to give up his work as an interpreter. Paradoxically, his last appearance as a pianist was connected with the performance of the fourth piano concerto, one of Beethoven’s most cheerful works. The only “shadow“ in it is the short second movement, it is often interpreted as Orpheus’ descent into hell. This “sound image“ became a kind of impulse for my piece, which begins with the lowest notes of the piano. In the composition I repel the sound images of the second movement of the fourth piano concerto and appeal to our “inner hearing“ with its selective memory