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New Westminster Symphony offers Beethoven's Fifth

Its opening stands as perhaps the most famous few bars in the world of classical music - and the New Westminster Symphony Orchestra is bringing it to the stage.
Gene Ramsbottom
Gene Ramsbottom is the clarinet soloist for Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in the upcoming New Westminster Symphony Orchestra concert.

Its opening stands as perhaps the most famous few bars in the world of classical music - and the New Westminster Symphony Orchestra is bringing it to the stage.

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is the centrepiece of the orchestra’s upcoming March 5 concert at Massey Theatre.

The symphony, of course, is best known for its Victory Theme – the short-short-short-long pattern of notes that stands for V in Morse code and that ended up being used by the BBC to introduce its radio news broadcasts during the Second World War.

The piece itself was written in 1808, when Beethoven’s hearing loss had already begun.

It will be joined on the program by Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, featuring clarinet soloist Gene Ramsbottom. Ramsbottom is currently the principal clarinetist with Vancouver's West Coast Symphony Orchestra and is the conductor of the Terrace Symphony.

“Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto is the finest ever written for this instrument, and the music has a consistently melancholy beauty,” says local arts promoter Tony Antonias.

The concert will open with the prelude to Smetana’s comic opera The Bartered Bride.

The New Westminster Symphony Orchestra is onstage Sunday, March 5 at 2 p.m. at Massey Theatre, 735 Eighth Ave. Admission is by donation at the door.

See www.newwestsymphony.net for more details.