Christina Landshamer, Munich Radio Orchestra & John Fiore – Beethoven: Egmont, Op. 84 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 42:52 minutes | 413 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BR-Klassik

In September 1809, the Vienna Hofburg Theatre commissioned Ludwig van Beethoven to create new incidental music for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s “Egmont”. The tragedy had premiered in Mainz on 9 January 1789. It calls for incidental music; but various attempts, some commissioned by the poet himself, remained unfinished or were unsatisfactory. In Vienna, however, the production of “Egmont” was to include the music called for in several places. Beethoven set to work. Since the subject matter suited him – the tragedy is set in Brussels, which is under threat from Spanish troops, and deals with resistance against oppression and foreign rule – he made good progress. Nevertheless, the Viennese theatre premiere of “Egmont” on 24 May 1810 still had to do without music; the score was not completed until the third repetition. Beethoven’s music for the play had its premiere on 15 June 1810. The music itself speaks for the fact that the commission was close to Beethoven’s heart; it far exceeds the standard of the stage music of the time. This applies to the compositional demands, but also to the relationship of the music to the drama. Instead of mere illustration, Beethoven provided an interpretation and thus an additional level of meaning. The well-known Egmont Overture, the most dramatically dense piece of drama music, anticipates the plot, introduces the characters. A clear reference to the drama is made in the ending, which corresponds exactly to the symphony of victory called for by Goethe at the end of the tragedy. Five of the ten numbers are directly integrated into the stage action; the other five, in addition to the overture and the four inter-act music pieces, are less closely linked to the drama. A concert performance of the music, conceived entirely for scenic presentation, dispenses with the context to the play. Often only the overture was and is played. – The declamation texts written by Friedrich Mosengeil, authorised by Goethe and revised by Franz Grillparzer, have been supplemented here by passages from Goethe’s Trauerspiel and newly arranged by August Zirner.

Album 1 of the present recording offers the complete version with declamation and music; album 2 features only Beethoven’s music. The box is completed with Beethoven’s overture “Zur Namensfeier”, op. 115.

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