Essentials: Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’

The Essentials series introduces you to the masterpieces you will be happy to know, performed by the world-famous Concertgebouw Orchestra and complete with a lively introduction by the incomparable Thomas Vanderveken. At Essentials we welcome a new generation of music lovers, and the concerts typically have a pleasant informal atmosphere.

Under the direction of its future chief conductor Klaus Mäkelä, the Concertgebouw Orchestra will play Beethoven’s Third Symphony, ‘Eroica’, one of the most groundbreaking pieces ever written.

Two hundred and twenty years ago, the ‘Eroica’ (or ‘Heroic’) Symphony caused a musical earthquake, and the piece sounds just as vital and compelling today. At the premiere, however, the audience was divided: listeners were either for or against it. Almost everything about the music was new. This symphony was much longer than listeners were used to; it broke all the structural rules and contained some daring and abrasive harmonies. The ‘Eroica’ also conveys a revolutionary message: the music depicts a fierce battle, but luckily, individual liberty triumphs in the end. With this work, Beethoven created a blueprint for the nineteenth-century symphony, giving rise to the Romantic era.