Brace yourselves, Beethoven lovers and purists everywhere; here is the famous Fifth Symphony as you never dared to imagine it! In "Beethoven Takes Five", Aleksey has changed the meter to an audacious 5/4… but that’s just the beginning of his machinations! He throws in Mexican music, latin, swing and jazz and, in his own words, "all sorts of other abominations on top". The result is an amazing piece, perhaps suitable for a concert encore, that can be played by string quartet alone or with a piano. The piano doubles and supports the strings and thereby make the piece approachable by intermediate players.