Beethoven cycle

Saturday, May 14
Symphonies No. 1, No. 2 and No. 5.

Thursday, May 19
Symphonies No. 3 and No. 4.

Tuesday, May 24
Symphonies No. 6 and No. 7.

Sunday, May 29
Symphonies No. 8 and No. 9.

Movie forum

Amphitheater hall, 4th floor of the Center for Social Action through Music.

May 18, 2011
Immortal Beloved (1994) directed by Bernard Rose
First showing: 13:30 hrs
Second showing: 16:00 hrs

May 19, 2011
Beethoven: The Sound and The Fury (2005) The History Channel.
First showing: 13:30 hrs
Second showing: 16:00 hrs

May 25, 2011
Beethoven lives upstairs (1992) directed by David Devine
First showing: 13:30 hrs
Second showing: 16:00 hrs

May 27, 2011
Beethoven: The Sound and The Fury (2005) The History Channel
Showing time: 14:30 hrs

A specialist in Beethoven

"My experience with this orchestra was excellent. Last year I was pleased to conduct the Simón Bolívar in the Spain–Venezuela Festival. The Bolivar is a wonderful orchestra and this year's rehearsals have gone very well. It is an orchestra that plays Beethoven's music wonderfully," said the conductor, who is a specialist in German symphonies.

"I have great expectations and also a great curiosity about the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. I’ve been told this orchestra is very energetic," said Frühbeck de Burgos. "The Ninth symphony is very special because of its human content expressed in Beethoven's wish that all humans become brothers and sisters and be filled with joy, which is something that, incidentally, El Sistema has achieved with its orchestras," he added.

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos is a conductor of international prestige. In 1978 —when he resigned as artistic director of the National Orchestra of Spain after 16 years— he began to pursue an international career that now, at the age of 77, compels him to board 70 flights and give some 110 concerts per year. With a repertoire that covers 700 works —most of them conducted without score— Frühbeck de Burgos has a special opinion about the work of Beethoven.

"The cycle of Beethoven symphonies is the greatest find in this type of genres. All these symphonies show the evolution, form the first: very classical Haydn style, to the ninth, which broke all the classical molds and explores worlds that have not been explored yet again (...) The Fifth Symphony is also unmistakable," said the conductor who was presented —at Carnegie Hall in New York— with the prestigious Conductor of the Year Award by Musical America Magazine last year.

“The work of José Antonio Abreu is amazing, not only the artistic aspect, but also the social one because it gives young people the opportunity to do something great with their lives (...) We Europeans should follow the example of El Sistema,” said enthusiastically the Spanish maestro who, after conducting the Beethoven cycle in Venezuela, will meet a busy schedule of concerts that includes St. Petersburg.