Beethoven, Symphony No 3, Toscanini (1939) torrent

Beethoven

Symphony No. 3 in E flat Major Op.55 "Eroica"

Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra

Recorded October 28, 1939

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The Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major (Op. 55) by Ludwig van Beethoven (known as the Eroica?Italian for "Heroic") is a work sometimes cited as the beginning of musical Romanticism.

Beethoven originally dedicated it to Napoleon Bonaparte. Beethoven admired the ideals of the French Revolution, and Napoleon as their embodiment, but Beethoven was so disgusted when Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French that he erased Napoleon's name from the title page. He did this with such force that he broke his pen and left a ragged hole in the paper. Some time before the work's publication in 1806, Beethoven inscribed the title Sinfonia eroica, composta per festeggiare il sovvenire d'un grand'uomo (Heroic symphony, composed to celebrate the memory of a great man). This great man might have been an ideal, non-existent hero, but more likely, it was the spirit of heroism itself that interested Beethoven. However, it seems obvious that Beethoven was referring to the memory of Napoleon's once-dignified nature.

Beethoven wrote most of the symphony in late 1803 and completed it in early 1804. The symphony was premiered privately in summer 1804 in Count Lobkowitz's castle Eisenberg. The first public performance was given in Vienna's Theater an der Wien on April 7, 1805 with the composer conducting.

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