It’s Beethoven with just two years to live, swelled with mania, almost completely deaf, turning his gaze inside and reveling in writing notes that clash.

It’s the Beethoven of The Grosse Fugue, a movement described as perhaps his most radical piece, condemned upon its conception by critics who said it was “incomprehensible”, but since the 20^th Century regarded as one of the composer’s greatest achievements.

The ACO will play the final show of its Beethoven & Mozart V tour at the Wollongong Town Hall on May 21. It also includes work by Bach but with half the show drawn from Beethoven’s String Quartet 13, it’s clear where the spotlight lies. 

“There’s the external and the internal Beethoven,” Tognetti told the Mercury.

“The external is the Beethoven of the 9th Symphony, all the symphonies actually, where they’re really clearly set out – and you don’t get the mania that you get in the string quartets, where he’s really allowing his imagination to lead his technique.”

Under Tognetti’s direction the ACO is unafraid to show some passion. The members are younger than most orchestras, they don’t wear tuxedos, and their conductor is more likely to be wielding his violin than a baton.

But how would a piece written for four strings would work being played by an entire orchestra? “It’s the whole orchestra but we’re playing the quartet,” Tognetti said. “It’s like the Grateful Dead on a crazy jam.

“It’s extremely loud. He writes extreme dynamics … and I think it’s necessary to underline and exaggerate that drama as much as possible so the clashing dissonances really stand out.”

The Fugue is preceded by the “exquisite” Cavantina – and followed by a movement included as a soft finish at the request of Beethoven’s publisher. But this sweet finale rarely makes it onto programs, Tognetti said.

“Even though he was an opinionated, some would say arrogant man, he actually wrote a much politer last movement - that people rarely play.”