Nielsen freed himself from the torments of World War I in his fifth symphony, which premiered in 1920. In two movements instead of the usual three or four, it is built on oppositions: darkness versus light, good versus evil, panic versus peace. Composed in 1945, when Barber was still an officer in the U.S. Army, the Cello Concerto takes a serious, humanistic look at the era, which soloist Stéphane Tétreault elevates to hope. Under the baton of Tania Miller, Beethoven’s seventh symphony truly becomes “the apotheosis of the dance.”
