Release Date: 12 January 1999
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 730099447522
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: BEETHOVEN
Description
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) Symphony No.3 in E flatmajor, Op. 55 'Eroica'Symphony No.8 in Fmajor, Op. 93 Beethoven wrote nine symphonies, thefirst heralding the new century, in 1800, and the last completed in 1824.Although he made few changes to the composition of the orchestra itself,adding, when occasion demanded, one or two instruments more normally found inthe opera-house, he expanded vastly the traditional form, developed in the timeof Haydn and Mozart, reflecting the personal and political struggles of aperiod of immense change and turbulence. To his contemporaries he seemed aninimitable original, but to a number of his successors he seemed to haveexpanded the symphony to an intimidating extent. The initial inspiration for Beethoven'sthird symphony seems to have come from the French envoy, Count Bernadotte, whohad been sent to Vienna in 1798, taking with him in his entourage thevirtuoso violinist and composer Rodolphe Kreutzer, to whom Beethoven was laterto dedicate his most famous violin sonata. Bernadotte spent some time inBeethoven's company and seems to have given him the notion of composing aheroic symphony in honour of General Bonaparte. The French had, by force ofarms, established a number of republics and had compelled Austria tounfavourable peace terms at the treaty of Campo Formio. As First Consul itseemed that Napoleon embodied the virtues of the republic of classical Rome, an idealthat had a strong attraction for Beethoven. The score of the completed symphony wasseen by Beethoven's friends early in 1804, bearing on its title page the name Buonaparteat the top and the subscription Ludwig van Beethoven. At the news that Napoleonhad declared himself emperor, Beethoven tore the page up, leaving on his owncopy the words Sinfonia grande, with the added note in pencil Geschriebenauf Bonaparte. The completed work was in the end dedicated to Prince Lobkowitz,who payed 400 ducats for the privilege. A recent biographer has pointed outthat Beethoven had expressed disillusion with Napoleon before he wrote the EroicaSymphony, but that at the time of its composition he was considering movingto Paris. There was,at the very least, a certain ambivalence in Beethoven's attitude to thegreatness of Napoleon's achievement and to his apparent betrayal of republicanideals. The Symphony No.3 in E flat major,Opus 55, has a number of original features, including thesubstitution of a funeral march for the slow movement, a Scherzo for theMinuet, as in the D major Symphony, and a set of variations basedon a theme from the ballet Prometheus, which appears first in skeletalform, for the finale. It is, besides, on a heroic scale, scored for pairs offlutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, trumpets and drums, with three French hornsand the customary strings. Beethoven made his first sketches for hiseighth symphony in 1811 and completed the work in October the following year,during the course of a visit to Linz. The summer had take
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Dale Kavanagh
Consortium Carissimi/Comeaux
Comic Intermezzo
