great orchestras. Most musicologists agree it
marks a major turningpoint. According to the
British music writer Tom Service, it “doesn’t
just stand for Napoleon, or Beethoven, but for
the possibilities of the symphony itself, which is
revealed as a carrier of new weight and meaning
as never before in its history.”Ode to Freedom
Even though Beethoven had been disgusted
by Napoleon in 1804, he did not complete-
ly reject him until several years
later. As the Napoleonic Wars
raged across Europe, the
French consul had become a
conqueror, hungry for more
lands. Napoleon once again
attacked Austria in 1809 and
even shelled Vienna, an event
which Beethoven experienced
firsthand. By the time of the
French ruler’s defeat in Spain in
1813, Beethoven’s enthusiasm
had waned so much that hewrote a piece in honor of Napoleon’s nemesis, the
future Duke of Wellington, who defeated the
French at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813 and ended
Napoleon’s career at Waterloo two years later.
In the past musical historians linked Napoleon’s
defeat and an end of Beethoven’s heroic style.
French essayist Romain Rolland wrote in the ear-
ly 1900s:“When the man of Waterloo has fallen,
Beethoven, emperor, also abdicates.” Modern re-
searchers, however, tend to see the composer in a
less reductive light. His late style certainly evolved
into something different from that of the Third
Symphony, but his music and writings still contain
democratic ideas, culminating in the celebration
of freedom and fraternal love in the setting of the
“Ode to Joy”in his Ninth Symphony. His legacy as a
lover of freedom is undimmed: His music has often
been played in struggles against authoritarianism,
such as during the Tiananmen Square protests in
China in 1989 and, later that year, in the celebration
following the fall of the Berlin Wall.MUSICOLOGIST STEFANO RUSSOMANNO IS A SPECIALIST IN BAROQUE CLASSICAL
MUSIC, AND AUTHOR OF A BOOK ON MUSIC AND THE ITALIAN POET DANTE.THE KEYS
TO GENIUS
Beethoven discarded
one piano after
another in his quest
to find the perfect
one. The instrument
(below) was given to
him by French piano
maker Sébastien
TO THE
VICTORS
B
eethoven was not the only composer
deeply affected by Napoleon. Follow-
ing the general’s march on Vienna in
1797, Joseph Haydn wrote his Missa
in Angustiis (Mass for Troubled Times). At its
1798 premiere, news of the victory of British
admiral Horatio Nelson over Napoleon at the
Battle of the Nile was filtering back to Europe.
Haydn admired Nelson, and in time the piece
became known as the Nelson Mass. By 1813,
when Napoleon’s star had waned, Beethoven
also decided to honor a British hero. Declaring
his allegiance to Napoleon’s nemesis, he wrote
his 15-minute Battle Symphony commemorat-
ing the victory of Arthur Wellesley (the future
first Duke of Wellington) over the French at the
Battle of Vitoria in 1813. The Battle Symphony
was popular in its time but is now regarded as a
minor work. Napoleon would have the satisfac-
tion that the groundbreaking Third Symphony
would always be linked to his legacy.THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON IN SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE’S
PORTRAIT OF 1815-16. HE RECEIVED THE TITLE OF DUKE IN 1814
FOR HIS VICTORIES AGAINST NAPOLEON IN SPAIN.maker Sébastien
Érard in 1803.
BRIDGEMAN/ACI
LEBRECHT MUSIC/ALBUM