“Of the three concerts dedicated to Beethoven Month, today’s is the most important,” he announces. Roberto Buffo about the presentation that the UNT Symphony Orchestra will offer today at 9:30 p.m. at the Alberdi Theater (Jujuy and Crisóstomo Álvarez) as the closing of the cycle dedicated to the classical composer. On the solo piano he will play Laura Oppedisano.
The Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, known as Heroica, or Eroica, will be the background work. “The years of greatest creative productivity of Ludwig van Beethoven coincide with the political and military domination of Napoleon in Europe. The composer was originally a great supporter of him because of the republican ideas of liberty, fraternity and equality that came from the French Revolution. In fact, the Eroica was originally called Bonaparte in his honour,” explains the director.
“When Napoleon proclaims himself emperor and brings down the French Republic, Beethoven tears the manuscript of the score by crossing out the dedication. Hence the second movement, a funeral march, is dedicated to the memory of a hypothetical hero, who no longer existed,” he adds.
Buffo points out that the Eroica “is one of the great symphonies of all time, it presents great technical difficulty for the orchestra, and it was the work that marked Beethoven’s great break with the tradition of the 18th century.”
Other works
The Piano Concerto No. 2 will also be part of the program. “It is a composition by a very young Beethoven, when he still believed in Napoleon’s republican ideas,” he explains. “And the Festive March in C major, with which we open the program, was intentionally composed to celebrate the victory of Napoleon. Wellington at Waterloo, when he defeated Napoleon, which marked the end of his domination in Europe, with the final defeat of the French troops and the subsequent exile on the island of Saint Helena, where he died.”
