The Essence of Vienna

The ballet The Creatures of Prometheus, for which Beethoven composed the music, did not achieve the expected success. It had only twenty-eight performances, but ironically, this was still the highest number of performances of any composer's works during his lifetime. Only the overture has become a permanent part of the concert repertoire.

A similar fate could have befallen his famous Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61. Beethoven himself contributed to this as he finished the score just two days before the premiere. The premiere was essentially performed a prima vista. The piece saw a renaissance thanks to the young violinist Joseph Joachim, who performed it as a thirteen-year-old virtuoso in 1844 under the baton of Mendelssohn. The piece's distinctive and pulsating timpani strokes, which recur throughout the work like a frame binding it together, eventually earned it the humorous nickname "the concerto for timpani."

Haydn's Divertimento in B-flat Major, Hob. II:46, also known as Feldpartitai, directly inspired Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Haydn. Although it remains unresolved whether the Divertimento was indeed composed by Haydn, the fact that this charming piece for wind quintet will be performed just before Brahms' Variations provides listeners with a rare opportunity to observe how a theme taken from a chamber work (The St. Anthony Chorale from the second movement) becomes the foundation for an orchestral masterpiece.