139
See also: Stamitz’s Symphony in E-flat major 116–117 ■ Mozart’s Symphony
No. 40 in G minor 128–131 ■ Symphonie fantastique 162–163 ■ Schumann’s
Symphony No. 1 166–169 ■ Dvorˇ ák’s Symphony No. 9 212–215Ludwig van Beethoven
The son of an obscure court
musician, Beethoven was born
in Bonn in 1770. He moved to
Vienna in 1792 and studied
briefly with Haydn and
Antonio Salieri. A prodigiously
talented pianist, he made his
name first as a virtuoso and
acquired a number of wealthy
noble admirers, who aided his
establishment as a composer.
In every musical genre he
explored, Beethoven was a
radical innovator, constantly
surprising audiences. After
Haydn’s death in 1809, he was
the preeminent composer of
his generation and a leading
figure in the new Romantic
age. In a cruel twist of fate,
Beethoven started to lose his
hearing in his late 20s, and by
1818 he was nearly completely
deaf. Nevertheless, after this
date, until his death in Vienna
in 1827, Beethoven wrote
some of his most inventive
and radical works.obviously appealed to him, as
around the same time he included
it in a collection of 12 orchestral
Contredanses (country dances)
and Fifteen Variations and Fugue
for solo piano, which would later
form the basis of the “Eroica” finale.A symphony takes shape
Beethoven began to plan his Third
Symphony in autumn 1802, had
a complete piano score by October
1803, and had an orchestrated
version by early summer 1804. The
work was first performed privately
at the home of Prince Franz Joseph
von Lobkowitz, one of Beethoven’s
patrons and sponsors, and then
given its public premiere at the
Theater an der Wien, in Vienna.
The composer had intended
to dedicate his work to Napoleon
Bonaparte. But when the general
declared himself the Emperor of
France, Beethoven crossed his
name from the manuscript.
Removing the dedication made
political sense: once Napoleon’s
invasion plans became clear, it
would have been career suicide to
celebrate him in a new symphony.
The work was eventually printedwith a dedication to Prince Franz
Joseph (who paid Beethoven
handsomely for it) and given the
subtitle “composed to celebrate
the memory of a great man.” The
most likely candidate for the
“great man,” and the source of
the title “Eroica” (Italian for
“heroic”), is Louis Ferdinand,
Prince of Prussia, who was killed
in battle against the French in
1806 and to whom Beethoven
had dedicated his Third Piano
Concerto, Op. 37, in 1803.Tearing up the rule book
Symphony No. 3 begins with
a movement that was stretched
and expanded far beyond anything
that Viennese audiences had
heard before. Instead of the
carefully balanced proportions of
the classical sonata form, where an
“exposition” and “recapitulation”
match each other around a short
“development” section, with a
brief “coda” (“tail” in Italian) to ❯❯CL ASSICAL 1750 –1820
Other key works1808 Symphonies No. 5 and
No. 6, Op. 67 and Op. 68
1818 Piano Sonata in B-flat,
Hammerklavier, Op. 106
1824 Symphony No. 9 in D
minor, Op. 125The herioc deeds of Napoleon
Bonaparte, depicted in Napoleon
Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis
David (1748–1825), inspired Beethoven
to write the “Eroica” symphony.I’ll give another
kreuzer if the thing
will only stop!
Audience member
Public premiere of the “Eroica” (1805)US_138-141_Beethoven_Eroica.indd 139 26/03/18 1:00 PM