More than 200 years after its publication, Beethoven's Third Symphony called "Eroica" is still linked to the legend that it was composed in homage to Napoleon, whose dedication Beethoven erased when he learned that the obscure Corsican officer of a few years earlier had crowned himself emperor with the title Napoleon I.
But the legend is not lacking in substance, for although Beethoven eventually dedicated the work to his patron Prince Lobkowitz, the 1806 publication retained the subtitle "composta per festeggiare il sovvenire d'un gran Uomo", which Beethoven might have removed had his discomfort with the Corsican taken on the magnitude that his pupil Ferdinand Ries reports in his memoirs.
In May 1804, being the work finished but unpublished, Ries came to Beethoven's house with the news of Napoleon's coronation. According to Ries, Beethoven would have screamed his head off, rushing to the table where the manuscript lay to tear it into a thousand pieces, exclaiming that Bonaparte had finally shown himself for what he simply was: an ordinary human being.
It is this story, with no other witness than both of them, that originated the legend, treated as such by scholars, who, given the existence of the aforementioned subtitle, have had no choice but to assign the "celebration and memory of a great man" (in capital letters) to a grandiose addressee, such as Humanity, for example.
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| Joseph Franz von Lobkowitz (1772 - 1816) |
Another "great man"
Beethoven admired Napoleon in his time, as did hundreds of artists and thinkers of the time. That the self-coronation of his hero made him doubt is also possible. But it is not superfluous to add here a matter of concrete life.
Prince Lobkowitz is one of the patrons who, four years after the premiere of the "Eroica", became a member of the so-called "pact of the three princes", by which Beethoven received an annual income of about four thousand florins for staying in Vienna, composing, and attending the evenings of his patrons, where, by the way, the master premiered his works.
Indeed, Symphony N°3, "Eroica", will have its premiere, in private, at Lobkowitz's house. If the hero had already fallen from his pedestal, there was a prince at hand with whom to ingratiate himself with concrete results.
Symphony No. 3 "Eroica"
The public performance will take place the following year, on April 7, 1805, at the Theatre an der Wien, Vienna, with Beethoven conducting. The work, magnificent, is the first in which the master departs from the pattern followed by Haydn, adopting a more personal language, which would be characteristic of later Beethoven. Its long duration (about an hour if all the indicated repetitions are performed) and its expressive intensity, both unusual features for the parameters of the early nineteenth century, bring the composition closer to the nascent Romantic postulates, despite the fact that it reflects the heritage, transformed, of Mozart, and also of Bach, through the former.
Movements:
00:23 Allegro con brio
16:25 Marcia funebre. Adagio assai
33:05 Scherzo. Allegro vivace - Trio
38:55 Finale. Allegro molto
The rendition is by the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, from the Royal Albert Hall of London (BBC Proms, 2012).
