Handel and Haydn Society Presents Beethoven Eroica 2/17, 2/19

Handel and Haydn Society will present Beethoven Eroica, conducted by Jean-Marie Zeitouni. Students are set to perform at Symphony Hall in celebration of 25th Anniversary of Collaborative Youth Concerts.

Jean-Marie Zeitouni conducts Beethoven’s groundbreaking Eroica symphony as part of a program celebrating the idea of the “imperial figure” by connecting the historical figures of Napoleon, Egmont, and Maria Theresia. The evening will be kicked off with a special student performance in honor of the 25th Anniversary of the Handel and Haydn Society Karen S. and George D. Levy Educational Outreach Program’s Collaborative Youth Concerts. Associate Conductor John Finney will lead the H&H orchestra and students from Brockton High School, Lawrence School, O’Bryant High School (Roxbury), and Boston Latin School in the “Gloria” from Mozart’s Coronation Mass, which Handel and Haydn will perform in full in April.

Originally named for Napoleon Bonaparte, Beethoven composed his Third Symphony between May and November of 1803, with further polishing early the following year. The composer famously expressed his great outrage over Bonaparte’s decision to crown himself Emperor in 1804 by furiously scratching out his name in the dedication of the original score. The newly minted Eroica symphony was privately performed in the Vienna town house of Prince Joseph von Lobkowitz, to whom the score was then dedicated, in the summer of 1804. Beethoven himself conducted the first public performance on April 7, 1805, in Vienna at the Theater-an-der-Wien.

Eroica marked a significant change in Beethoven’s composition. Maynard Solomon observed, “we know that we have crossed irrevocably a major boundary in Beethoven’s development and in musical history as well.” Its size and shape, density and complexity of musical ideas, and overall scope made Eroica worlds apart from any symphony written before it. The first movement alone, when the exposition repeat is included, runs half the length of an entire late Mozart or Haydn symphony. Instrumentation for Eroica consists of two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, three horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings; in this work Beethoven introduced a third horn to the orchestra for the first time.

Also featured on the program is Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, part of a set of incidental music pieces written for Goethe’s play and premiered in June of 1810. The music and dramatic narrative focus on the life and heroism of a 16th-century Dutch nobleman, the Count of Egmont. Composed during the period of the Napoleonic Wars, Beethoven used the work to express his personal political concerns through the exaltation of the heroic sacrifice of a man condemned to death for having taken a valiant stand against oppression. The overture is one of the last works of his middle period and is in a style similar to his Fifth Symphony, which he had completed two years earlier.

The program is rounded out with Haydn’s Symphony No. 48, composed for a visit by the Holy Roman Empress, Maria Theresia, the final celebrated “hero” of the evening. The work is from Haydn’s Sturm und Drang period, which was notable for its agitated or impassioned style.

REPERTOIRE:
Beethoven Eroica

Jean-Marie Zeitouni, conductor

BEETHOVEN: Egmont Overture
HAYDN: Symphony No. 48, Maria Theresia
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3, Eroica

TICKETS:
Subscriptions and single tickets may be purchased through the Handel and Haydn Box Office by phone at 617 266 3605, online at handelandhaydn.org, or in person at the Handel and Haydn office, Horticultural Hall, 300 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston (M–F, 10am–6pm). Single tickets range from $20 to $78. Student rush available starting one hour before curtain: $15 cash only with valid ID, best available seats subject to availability. Groups of 10 or more receive a 20% discount.

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