Wiener Philharmoniker & Sir Simon Rattle – Beethoven: Symphony No. 3, Op. 55 “Eroica” (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Wiener Philharmoniker & Sir Simon Rattle – Beethoven: Symphony No. 3, Op. 55 “Eroica” (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 49:45 minutes | 468 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

Wildly heroic: Ludwig van Beethoven’s ” Eroica “is still associated with an anecdote to this day: when the composer learned that Napoleon was crowned emperor, he angrily tore the title page of the score of the Symphony in E flat major, on which there was an appropriation of the work to” Bonaparte”. This is how Beethoven’s pupil Ferdinand Ries described it in a publication that appeared in 1838, more than three decades after the alleged incident.

December 1804. Beethoven was furious: had Napoleon Bonaparte, whom he had previously deeply revered, actually crowned himself emperor! This was diametrically opposed to the composer’s ideal of freedom. He then rejected the plan to dedicate his recently completed Symphony No. 3 to Bonaparte. The surviving title page of a copy of the score from which Beethoven literally scraped out the dedication “intitolata Bonaparte” is a testimony to the composer’s exasperation.

The disappointment about the former role model sat deep. Beethoven had already been electrified by the personality of Bonaparte since his matriculation at the Kurk”olnische Landesuniversit”at zu Bonn in 1789, with whose ideals he first came into contact at that time. Inspired by the ideas of the French Revolution with its demand for freedom, equality and fraternity, Napoleon initially seemed to him the right personality to establish those principles in Europe. Beethoven even planned to move from Vienna to Paris in 1804 – a project which, however, came to an abrupt end with the event of 2 December 1804 – the coronation of Napoleon as emperor. “Is he nothing more than an ordinary person! Now he will also trample on all human rights, only indulge his ambition; he will now rise higher, like everyone else, become a tyrant,” Beethoven’s exclamation is said to have been. The plan to name his symphony “Bonaparte” was thus also obsolete. According to his pupil Ferdinand Ries, Beethoven even tore up the original title page of the symphony and had it given the current epithet “Eroica” during the new production.

“This symphony, which is extended beyond the usual extent, should be set shortly after the beginning, rather than towards the end of a musical event, for example after an overture, an aria or a concert. It would otherwise lose its effect if the listener is already tired of the previous one.”(Notes by Beethoven in the first edition of the score published in 1806 by the”Verlag f”ur Kunst und Industrie”)

Tracklist:
1-1. Sir Simon Rattle – Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55 “Eroica”: I. Allegro con brio (16:21)
1-2. Sir Simon Rattle – Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55 “Eroica”: II. Marcia funebre. Adagio assai (15:14)
1-3. Sir Simon Rattle – Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55 “Eroica”: III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace (06:01)
1-4. Sir Simon Rattle – Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55 “Eroica”: IV. Finale. Allegro molto (12:08)

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