Concert Program II

1790–1800, Beethoven Launched

Mozart’s death in 1791 marked an abrupt end to one of history’s most incandescent artistic careers. The following year, the twenty-two-year-old Beethoven traveled to Vienna, where, under Haydn’s tutelage, he inherited—and then transformed—the Classical tradition. This dynamic program offers a snapshot of the eighteenth century’s final decade, when Haydn, the elder statesman of the Classical era, gave way to the voice of a new century.