Symphony concert 7

Only a hole was left. That’s how completely Beethoven wanted to erase his original dedication on the title page of the Third Symphony, »intitolata Bonaparte«. Once he had crowned himself emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte was dead as a role model for Beethoven. Fortunately, Beethoven did not rub out his Third Symphony: he was well aware that he had achieved a compositional masterstroke with his »Eroica«. His work continues to engage with the idea of the heroic. Is the idea put to the grave in the famous funeral march? The triumphant, dancing end indicates otherwise. In Richard Wagner’s »Ring« Siegfried dies forever, experiencing the tragic culmination of his “hero’s life”. Dark and disenchantingly sombre, »Siegfried’s Death« and the subsequent funeral march mark the musical turning point of the »Götterdämmerung«. After the death of the tyrant Stalin, Shostakovich affirmed his own musical language in his cello concerto: the lustre and the impact of a Stalin may decay, but the music of DSCH will remain. Karina Canellakis and Nicolas Altstaedt will ensure it does.