Beethoven’s Symphony No.7 in Aberdeen

The evening

There’s only one Ludwig van Beethoven, and although he died 200 years ago this year, his music still burns with the bright, unquenchable power of life itself. “I am the new Bacchus, pressing out glorious wine for all humanity”, he declared, and his Seventh Symphony goes straight to your head: unstoppable, elemental and triumphantly human. But BBC SSO Creative Partner Ilan Volkov never takes any music for granted. Against Beethoven’s headlong energy, he’s set two very different visions by modern Japanese masters. Takemitsu explores the poetic world of Emily Dickinson, and Dai Fujikura imagines our violin and flute soloists as birds — soaring free, leading flocks and murmurations of extraordinary sounds. This promises to be ravishing.