Overview

Conductor Jaap van Zweden continues his Beethoven symphony cycle with the San Francisco Symphony. By this point we have all heard the main hook from Beethoven’s Fifth so many times that it’s hard to imagine a time when that relentless riff didn’t enjoy permanent earworm status. But in 1808, when Beethoven unleashed it on an unsuspecting Vienna, the shock of its radical simplicity hit like hardcore punk rock. Like a classic Marx Brothers movie, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 is a carefully conceived celebration of chaos. Stylistically, it looks back to the 18th century, but the symphony’s best gags come at its own expense.