Klaus Döring's Classical Music/Klaus Döring's Klassische Musik

Three-year-old conducts Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.  Picture: esenuk/YouTube By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM London   When a pyjama-clad toddler delivered a mind-blowing masterclass in conducting Beethoven. Here’s the moment a toddler was simply overcome with joy, as he  conducted  along to  Beethoven ’s Fifth Symphony with stunning precision. At the tender age of three, Jonathan Okseniuk was caught on camera by his mum, fiercely waving his baton around to the music in the family living room. The young American maestro puts on a sensational show of conducting along to the iconic recording by Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic – who just happen to be Jonathan’s favourite conductor and orchestra. It’s hard to believe a three-year-old has the focus to deliver such clear signals and fluid gestures to an (albeit imaginary) orchestra. As he breathlessly declares the finale of the fourth movement to be his “favourite part!”, Jonathan d...

  If you start typing “Beethoven” into YouTube’s search bar, “Beethoven 5th symphony” is the first auto fill option. Probably the world’s most popular symphony, everyone has heard it even if they couldn’t name it. Its iconic four-note opening motif is instantly recognizable. But as always – there’s more to the story of Beethoven’s famous Symphony in C Minor, No. 5.  About the composition  Despite the work’s formal title, its famous opening doesn’t reach a true C minor until the third repetition of the four notes. While the symphony does quickly get to C minor, it concludes in a hearty C-major coda. You can hear a lighter, more festive version of the opening of the first movement played in C-major here.  Beethoven was already growing deaf when he started his fifth symphony in 1804. He began working on it short after finishing his third symphony. Even so, he was working on so many other works at the time, it took him four years to complete it. It wasn’t just the other ...