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Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony 5

“Radiant beams shoot through the deep night of this region, and we become aware of gigantic shadows which, rocking back and forth, close in on us and destroy all within us except the pain of endless longing — a longing in which every pleasure that rose up amid jubilant tones sinks and succumbs. Only through this pain, which, while consuming but not destroying love, hope, and joy, tries to burst our breasts with a full- voiced general cry from all the passions, do we live on and are captivated beholders of the spirits”.

— ETA Hoffman, reviewing Beethoven’s fifth symphony in 1810