Happy 4Th of July! Beethoven – Symphony No 3 Eroica – Karajan, PS, May 1944 [Legendary Recordings LR005]

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55, also known as “Eroica” (Italian for “Heroic”), is a symphony in four movements composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. This symphony, is a musical work marking the full arrival of the composer’s “middle-period”, a series of unprecedented large scale works of emotional depth and structural rigor.^[1][2]

Beethoven: Sinfonía Nº3 “Heróica” – 4º mov. Finale

According to Beethoven’s pupil and assistant, Ferdinand Ries, when Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor of the French in May 1804, Beethoven became disgusted and went to the table where the completed score lay. He took hold of the title-page and tore it up in rage. This is the account of the scene as told by Ries:

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In writing this symphony Beethoven had been thinking of Buonaparte, but Buonaparte while he was First Consul. At that time Beethoven had the highest esteem for him and compared him to the greatest consuls of ancient Rome. Not only I, but many of Beethoven’s closer friends, saw this symphony on his table, beautifully copied in manuscript, with the word “Buonaparte” inscribed at the very top of the title-page and “Ludwig van Beethoven” at the very bottom. …I was the first to tell him the news that Buonaparte had declared himself Emperor, whereupon he broke into a rage and exclaimed, “So he is no more than a common mortal! Now, too, he will tread under foot all the rights of man, indulge only his ambition; now he will think himself superior to all men, become a tyrant!” Beethoven went to the table, seized the top of the title-page, tore it in half and threw it on the floor. The page had to be re-copied and it was only now that the symphony received the title “Sinfonia eroica.”