Starting Monday evening, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and I will begin a series of concerts in South America. Our itinerary includes appearances Monday and Tuesday in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Thursday in Montevideo, Uruguay; and Friday and Saturday in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Our programs will feature music by Mozart, Beethoven, Ravel, Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss, and Isaac Albeniz (as arranged by Rodion Shchedrin). As always, the symphony and I are proud to be representing the city of Pittsburgh on the international stage. The Ludwig van Beethoven composition on our tour programs will be his immortal Fifth Symphony (1808). The Beethoven Fifth is a work that continues to astonish listeners with its elemental power, taut drama and, above all, sense of inevitability. Out of a sequence of just four notes – three short and one long – Beethoven creates an incredible drama, one that proceeds inexorably from the storm and stress of the opening movement to a triumphant finale. The Beethoven Fifth is a work that never fails to make a profound effect upon the audience. And yet, as with virtually any great and revolutionary work, it encountered its share of resistance among early listeners. Composer Ludwig Spohr, who heard Beethoven conduct the Fifth on several occasions in Vienna, described the symphony’s great finale as ’empty noise.’ In 1814, the London Philharmonic rehearsed the Beethoven Fifth for the first time. After playing the famous opening measures, the musicians burst into laughter. In 1830, Felix Mendelssohn visited Johann Wolfgang von Goethe at the great German author’s Weimar home. There, Mendelssohn played excerpts on the piano of the opening movement of the Beethoven Fifth. Mendelssohn described Goethe’s reaction: ‘At first he said, ‘But it does not move one at all; it merely astounds; it is grandiose,’ and then went on growling to himself, until after a long time he began again: ‘That is very great, quite mad, one is almost afraid the house will fall down; and only imagine when they are all playing together!’ ” But perhaps the best story concerning reaction to Beethoven’s Fifth comes from French composer Hector Berlioz. In 1828, Berlioz attended a Paris concert performance of Beethoven’s Fifth. Also in the audience was Berlioz’s professor at the Paris Conservatoire, Jean-Francois Lesueur. After the concert, Berlioz rushed to Lesueur, eager to learn his esteemed teacher’s opinion: ‘I went striding up and down the passage with flushed cheeks. ‘Well, dear master?’ ‘Hush! I want air; I must go outside. It is incredible, wonderful! It stirred and affected and disturbed me to such a degree that when I came out of the box and tried to put on my hat I could not find my own head! Do not speak to me until tomorrow.’ ” The next day, Berlioz hurried to Lesueur’s home. Berlioz realized at once that he was now ‘talking to a quite different being from the man of the day before, and that the subject was painful to him.’ Still, Berlioz insisted that his teacher give his opinion on Beethoven’s Fifth. ‘Lesueur, after again admitting how deeply the symphony had affected him, shook his head with a curious smile, and said, ‘All the same, such music ought not to be written.’ ” To this, Berlioz replied: ‘Don’t be afraid, dear master, there will never be too much of it.’ Mariss Jansons is music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Send your questions to The Maestro, Tribune-Review, D.L. Clark Building, 503 Martindale St., Pittsburgh, PA 15212. Or e-mail tribliving@tribweb.com . Ken Meltzer, the symphony’s community spokesman, contributed to this column.

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