Ludwig van Beethoven: Egmont Overture: Concert Band: Score & Parts

When Beethoven received a commission from Vienna’s Burgtheater to compose stage music for Goethe’s tragedy Egmont in 1809 he viewed it as a great honour. The impetus would have been all the stronger sincethe drama about a Dutch nobleman who falls victim to a plot by a Spanish ruler from the outset provided for music at several points. Beethoven repeatedly declared later on that he had received no honorarium from thetheatre’s management but had written the music “solely out of love for the poet”. The overture became separated from the rest of the incidental music very early on; it was separately published and soon performedas a concert piece independent of the stage tragedy. We now issue it as a study score based on the text of the Beethoven Complete Edition and with a new preface.

For his only opera Leonore/Fidelio Beethoven wrote four overtures in total. Chronologically the so-called Leonore Overture no. 3 is the second of the series and perhaps the most performed of all Beethoven?s overtures. During his own lifetime it was heard not only in the theatre but also in concert thereby establishing with the Coriolan and Egmont overtures the new genre of the concert overture. Recognised around the middle of the nineteenth century as a masterpiece it went on to become the ?declared favourite of all orchestras ? as Beethoven biographer Anton Schindler testifies. It now appears as astudy score based on the musical text of the Beethoven Complete Edition with its own specially prepared foreword.

Op. 84. Par BEETHOVEN LUDWIG VAN. Beethoven?s incidental music op. 84 was written in 1809 for a performance of Goethe?s drama ?Egmont? at the Burgtheater in Vienna. Numerous composers of the day tried their hand at writing music for the dramatic material of Goethe?s tragedy, several in collaboration with the author himself. The overture reflects the themes of the play through its expressive music, and over the last two hundred years it has become one of the most popular works by Beethoven conceived for the stage. For this new edition, Beethoven specialist Jonathan Del Mar draws on various manuscript sources including a handwritten set of parts which has never been taken into account before. Thus, numerous discrepancies such as missing notes in the flute part or unclear bowing could be clarified for the first time. / Date parution : 2022-04-05/ Répertoire / Orchestre