BEETHOVEN MEETS THE BEATLES

Los Angeles – California Philharmonic Orchestra presents “Beethoven Meets the Beatles” to open its summer season at Walt Disney Concert Hall on June 30.

Cal Phil Founder and Music Director Dr. Victor Vener will conduct Beethoven’s monumental Symphony No. 5, as well as a set of Beatles hits featuring special guests The Fab Four, the nation’s leading Beatles tribute band (and frequent Cal Phil guests) as they recreate the Beatles’ legendary original studio arrangements live on stage.

The concert begins at 2 p.m., Sunday, June 30, at Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90012. The orchestra’s ever popular “Talks With the Maestro” chats with Victor Vener take place at 1 p.m. in BP Hall. Tickets range from $37.50 to $140 with subscriptions ranging from$33 to $122.50, all available at www.calphil.com and (323) 850-2000. Groups of 10 or more may call (323) 850-2050. Box office hours are Tuesday-Friday, 12 noon to 5 p.m. and 2 hours prior to performance.

Beethoven’s 5th Symphony is probably the best-known piece of Western music in the world. It took Beethoven four years to write and had only been rehearsed once before its premiere in an icy auditorium on December 22, 1808. Groundbreaking in terms of both its technical and its emotional impact, the Fifth has had a large influence on composers, inspired work by Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Mahler and Berlioz. The symphony’s first movement, as performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra, was featured on the Voyager Golden Record, a phonograph record containing a broad sample of the images, common sounds, languages, and music of Earth sent into outer space aboard the Voyager probes in 1977, both of which have now left the solar system.

More than 150 years after the 5th debuted, The Beatles exploded on the music scene with songs of such staggering popularity. Beethoven was no slouch when it came to songwriting, having composed over 150 works of music. The Beatles wrote more than 250 songs and concertgoers will hear “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “All You Need Is Love,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “Got to Get You into My Life,” “Imagine,” “Hey Jude” and others.