‘From darkness to light’ . . . ‘Thus Fate knocks at the door’: what with alleged quotations from the composer and the wildest Romantic interpretations, it would be impossible to enumerate all the commentaries that have accompanied ‘The Fifth’ ever since its premiere. So, what if we simply went back to the original score? What if we accepted the idea that, in a context influenced by the French Revolution (as embodied by the brilliant Gossec), it was Beethoven’s music itself that was totally revolutionary, as François-Xavier Roth and his orchestra Les Siècles like to remind us? © harmonia mundi