Work: Anthèmes II

This Late Night Prom was a fitting way to remember the man. Such events draw a lighter scattering of musical night owls, minimising the hall and allowing for meditative concentration.

Onwards Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra went, then, jumping forwards from a rousing Fifth to the Eighth, once again playing the later, even-numbered half of a ‘pair’ before the odd. Asked why the Seventh was much preferred publicly to the Eighth, Beethoven is apocryphally to have replied: “because the Eighth is so much better.