concert Sir Neville Marriner conducts Handel, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Britten Academy of St Martin in the Fields

During the Academy's formative years, Marriner directed from the leader's chair. The founder took conducting lessons with Pierre Monteux and increasingly occupied the podium as the group expanded from its original core of eleven string-players and harpsichordist. Marriner's impeccably clear beat and focus on rhythmic precison flowed from his uncompromising pursuit of perfection, not to mention long experience of decoding the spidery gestures of gerontic conductors from his seat in the London Symphony Orchestra.

In this excerpt, as the work unfolds, Marriner's musicians transcend the composition's substantial surface difficulties, propelled by a potent mix of preparation and adrenalin-charged spontaneity to touch the sublime in Beethoven's score.