Andrew Grams, conductor 

Wilson Leywantono (1995) 

One Minute Symphony: M-o-o-n-l-i (2020)
 

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)  

Symphony No. 4 in B-flat, op. 60 (1806) 

• Adagio - Allegro vivace 

• Adagio 

• Allegro vivace 

• Allegro ma non troppo 

Andrew Grams conductor 

Current position Chief Conductor Elgin Symphony Orchestra in the state of Illinois. 

Educated Juilliard School in New York (violin) and Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (conducting). 

Highlights Was assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra (2004-2007). Conducted the Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Dallas and Houston orchestras, among others. Worked in Europe with the Orchestre National de France, BBC National Symphony and the symphony orchestras of Bergen and Malmö, among others. Debuted in 2009 with the Residentie Orkest. 

In the press "A conductor who efficiently makes it clear what he wants: pathos, power, and precision" - Herald Tribune 

 
One Minute Symphony

The Beethoven Special opens tonight with a One Minute Symphony, for which composition student Wilson Leywantono was inspired by the 2020 Beethoven Year. Unfortunately, his planned composition did not go ahead at the time, due to coronagraphs in effect at the time. Wilson drew most of his inspiration from Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14, better known as the Mondscheinsonate. 

Beethoven

The most substantial part of Beethoven's income came from composition commissions awarded to him by aristocratic admirers. Thus, in the summer of 1806, Beethoven went to the Hungarian palace of Count Franz Brunsvik, where he spent a delightful time in the presence of the count's three sisters. Even before the summer was over, Beethoven left for the summer residence of Prince Karl Lichnowsky in Silesia. Lichnowsky introduced Beethoven to a neighbor, Count Franz Oppersdorff, a wealthy aristocrat who attached such importance to music that he did not hire any staff member who did not play an instrument. A great admirer of Beethoven, he immediately had a performance of his Second Symphony arranged and on that occasion commissioned Beethoven to compose two new symphonies. Beethoven set aside his Symphony in C minor (the Fifth) and began work on a new one in B-flat major, which he completed at Lichnowsky's palace as late as the autumn of 1806. However, it was not Oppersdorff's orchestra that played the premiere of the Fourth Symphony. The Fourth was first played at a Viennese concert in March 1807, sponsored by Lichnowsky and where the Overture "Coriolan" also sounded for the first time. Oppersdorff was not happy about this. To make up for it, Beethoven dedicated the first edition of the Fourth to him. 

In Beethoven's oeuvre, the Fourth is, along with the Eighth, the least played symphony. Perhaps because, with its classical cut to Mozart and Haydn, it so contrasts with its surrounding symphonies, the powerful Eroica and the popular Fifth. "Just as No. 8 lives in the valley between the colossal No. 9 and the almost equally colossal No. 7, so No. 4 is equally overshadowed," noted encyclopedist Sir George Grove. Robert Schumann best characterized the Fourth: "A slender Greek maiden between two Norwegian giants."