Beethoven: Coriolan Overture, Op. 62 & Other Works

Featuring

Volker Hartung
Filippo Faes
Junge Philharmonie Köln
Ludwig van Beethoven

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Compositional Technique

Beethoven's Second Symphony replaced the standard minuet with a new 'scherzo,' giving the composition more scope and energy, and features one of his longest slow movements.

Composer Biography

Ludwig van Beethoven was considered the first self-determined individual of the modern age, embodying the political revolution in his music and selling his works at appropriate prices.

Composition History

At the premiere of Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto, the piano part was incomplete, with his friend Ignaz Xaver von Seyfried reporting that the manuscript pages were mostly empty except for 'incomprehensible Egyptian hieroglyphs'.

Recording & Production

This recording of Beethoven's Second Symphony was made during the Cologne New Philharmonic Orchestra's very first symphonic concert in January 1990, which launched their decades-long success.

Critical Reception

Beethoven's Second Symphony shocked contemporary critics with over two hundred fortissimo-sforzati in its first movement, with one Viennese critic describing it as 'an abominably wounded dragon'.

Composition History

Beethoven's Second Symphony was largely composed during his stay in Heiligenstadt in 1802, a period when his deafness became increasingly apparent and he began to realize it might be incurable.