It’s one of the best loved works in the classical music repertoire, and it finished very high in our list of the greatest symphonies of all time. It is synonymous with the notion of its composer as a revolutionary figure, tearing up the symphonic rulebook. No doubt about it, Ludwig van Beethoven‘s Symphony No. 3, nicknamed the Eroica, is a very special work. But just what makes it such a crucial work? and how did it come about? Read on for our deep dive into this extraordinary work.
What’s so special about the Eroica?
If you had to nominate a single work that profoundly impacted the story of classical music, you’d probably plump for Beethoven’s Third Symphony, the Eroica. It feels significant that it was composed right at the beginning of the 19th century (1803-1804, to be precise), as the Eroica is very much about the beginning of a new age in classical music: the Romantic era.
In terms of its size and scale, its adventurous new harmonic language, and its emotional sophistication, the Eroica was unlike anything that had come before. The symphonies by Mozart and Haydn, though of course great marvels in themselves, did not approach this level of ambition, musical daring, and emotional complexity.
What are the four movements of the Eroica?
Beethoven begins his Third Symphony with an unforgettable Allegro con brio in sonata form. The very start of this movement is one of the best known moments in classical music: two bold E flat chords that have any listener sitting up and taking notice. These introduce a noble, swelling main theme, which moves through a number of developments as the movement progresses.
This was groundbreaking stuff from Beethoven, both in terms of its dynamics (plenty of soft / loud contrasts) and the sudden changes in harmony and rhythm. Besides all this innovation, the movement has a wonderful mix of grandeur and energy that, once heard, is never forgotten.
Beethoven follows this grand opening statement with a noble, dignified funeral march. He would go on to compose some other wonderful symphonic slow movements – think of those from the Fifth, Seventh and Ninth Symphonies – but this solemn, tragic utterance is up there with the very best of them. It would influence later composers including Mahler and Brahms when they came to compose funeral marches of their own.
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Beethoven shakes us out of our torpor
We follow this landscape of grave solemnity with a fizzing Scherzo and trio. This provides a complete break from the gravity and dignity of the funeral march. Beethoven shakes us out of our torpor with plenty of rhythmic twists and dynamic contrasts. Respite does come, though, courtesy of a trio section that features some good work for the French horn.
For the final movement, Beethoven gives us a series of variations, inspired by a melody from his ballet The Creatures of Prometheus. This is a great showcase of Beethoven’s agility and variety – there are moments of drama, grandeur, humour and intimacy.
When and where did the premiere of Beethoven’s Third Symphony take place?
The Eroica got its first performance at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien on 7 April 1805.
You can hear the Eroica at the 2024 BBC Proms! It’s the major work being performed for Prom 72 on Friday 13 September.
What inspired the Eroica?
Like many artists of his generation, Beethoven drew powerful inspiration from the French Revolution, revelling in the collapse of an oppressive monarchy and in the new freedoms which the march of popular democracy appeared to promise. For Beethoven, himself a cussed individualist, the figure of Napoleon Bonaparte epitomised the new spirit of liberty and self-determination sweeping Europe.
The Third Symphony was conceived as a tribute to the French military commander – until, that is, Napoleon declared himself Emperor of his country, prompting an enraged Beethoven to tear the title page of the finished manuscript, on which he had written ‘Bonaparte’, in two pieces. A new title was eventually adopted, less specific in its references: ‘Heroic Symphony, composed to celebrate the memory of a great man’.
‘The greatest single step in the history of music’
Such is the backstory of the Eroica Symphony. How important is it to the actual music? Fascinating as the Napoleon connection is, posterity has gradually shied away from viewing the work as a glorified piece of musical hero-worship. ‘Some say it is Napoleon, some Hitler, some Mussolini,’ as the conductor Toscanini Tetchily put it. ‘For me it is simply Allegro con brio.’
And while it’s true that vestiges of the Napoleonic element can easily be traced in the Eroica – the confident demeanour of the opening movement, the overtones of militaristic ceremonial in the Marcia funebre – they can easily obscure the extraordinary innovations in the piece, which one commentator calls ‘the greatest single step made by an individual in the history of the symphony and in the history of music in general’.
Scale: what exactly makes Beethoven’s Eroica so revolutionary?
For early listeners, size was certainly a major issue. ‘I’ll give another Kreutzer if the thing will only stop!,’ one irritated audience member shouted at the first public performance. He would not have been alone in wondering why exactly Beethoven’s newest symphony had to be twice as long as any that preceded it.
The reason was simple: Beethoven was bursting with musical ideas, and needed the broadest canvas on which to paint them. The development section of the opening movement is unprecedentedly fertile, introducing a new theme unheard in the exposition. The Marcia funebre has not one, but two interpolated episodes, one ringingly triumphant, the other gravely fugal. The finale’s variations become a major statement in themselves, not just a mood-lightening way to drop the curtain on a major-key symphony.
Everywhere is plenitude, dynamism and surging energy, and a determination to use symphonic form to give these indomitable human qualities full expression. The Heiligenstadt crisis, barely over, had laid Beethoven low, but certainly not defeated him. In the Eroica Symphony he is resurgent; the composer himself is the ultimate hero of this extraordinary masterpiece.
Eroica: the best recording
When Rudolf Kempe made his Beethoven symphony cycle with the unfashionable Munich Philharmonic in the early 1970s, it was overshadowed by other, more glamorous interpretations, Herbert von Karajan’s in particular. But Kempe’s is a glorious Eroica, powerful and majestic, yet buoyed with lyricism and elegance. It remains a definitive point of reference.
Münchner Philharmoniker/Rudolf KempeEMI 636 5552
Read reviews of the latest Beethoven recordings here
Words by Terry Blain. This article first appeared in the December 2015 issue of BBC Music Magazine.