Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 can be understood as a portrait of a hero. But it doesn’t illustrate a narrative or specific actions. Instead, it expresses through music the emotions and moods of an idealised figure. Once the name of Napoleon Bonaparte had been erased, this would be a great reformist leader in a context of challenging conservative monarchies. In terms of music, it turned the page on the classical period and heralded the romantic century. More than a century later, Richard Strauss composed the Metamorphoses between August 1944 and March 1945. The end of the Second World War was approaching. The Allied victory was already obvious to everyone. In a confessional and pessimistic register, Strauss questioned the present and reflected on the past; on the transfiguration of the human soul into a spirit of cruelty. He wove melodies into the strings of the orchestra, which he divided into twenty-three distinct parts.
Beethoven’s Heroic Symphony
Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa
R. Strauss Metamorphoses
L. v. Beethoven Symphony No. 3, Heroic
Sylvain Gasançon conductor
