Testament: Beethoven’s Holy City | Orchestral Masterworks

The UC Irvine Symphony Orchestra and Choirs present Testament: Beethoven’s Holy City, a program pairing two of Beethoven’s most enduring works: his Symphony No. 3 “Eroica” and the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives.

Written within a year of each other, the pieces came in the wake of Beethoven’s “Heiligenstadt Testament,” a private letter to his brothers in which he confessed his growing deafness and loss of hope. In spite of this backdrop, both the “Eroica” Symphony — originally dedicated to Napoleon — and Christ on the Mount of Olives — a humanistic setting of the Christ passion — express the uplifting “strife-to-victory” journey for which Beethoven’s music is so beloved. 

Conducted by Geoffrey Pope, the evening celebrates the collaboration of the UCI Symphony and Choirs in a program of resilience, forgiveness and transcendence.