THE 5TH — MOVEMENT I, A Battle Brewing

EPISODE 182

You know Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. You’ve heard it in films, advertisements, parodied in Saturday morning cartoons and disco-ized in Saturday Night Fever. The Fifth Symphony is a given, so much so that it blends into the background. You know this piece, but how well? What’s so special about those iconic opening notes? Of all the symphonies of the great, bewigged classical greats, why is this one still stuck in our heads over two centuries later?

To answer these questions, we’re giving Beethoven’s famous symphony the same treatment we give to pop songs by artists like Billie Eilish, Cardi B, and Drake on our podcast Switched on Pop. We're doing so with the accompaniment of an orchestra that’s been performing this piece since 1842: the New York Philharmonic. In Movement I we hear how the first four notes of the piece are more than a modern meme, they’re the main character in a drama that will unfold over four movements. A drama between light and dark, hope and despair, life and death. 

Hear new episodes of our four-part miniseries The 5th every Tuesday and Friday starting September 8th.

FEATURING

Frank Huang, Violin

Anthony McGill, Clarinet

Sherry Sylar, Oboe

Recording of The New York Philharmonic performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 conducted by Jaap van Zweden used by permission from Decca Gold.