Beethoven's Choral Fantasy wasn't, as it might appear at first glance, a dry run for the Ninth Symphony. This is not to say that he mightn't have looked back at it sixteen years later when he was working on his groundbreaking final symphony, but he composed it as a grand finale for a gala concert of his most recent works -- a day when Beethoven would have been better off to stay in bed.
We'll follow the Fantasy with some musical hi-jinks from Haydn and Mozart, and then music from three composers whose nationalism did not always sit well with the authorities.
