Philippe Herreweghe Conducts Beethoven

‘So he is only a common mortal!’ a disappointed Beethoven is said to have exclaimed when told his role model Napoleon crowned himself emperor of France. The magic was gone, power turned out to be Napoleon’s primary motive and Beethoven furiously scratched out the revolutionary’s name from the Eroica score he had been planning to dedicate to him. There is more political drama in the famous overture to Egmont in which Beethoven takes a stance against suppression and allows freedom to triumph. The German top pianist Alexander Lonquich joins him in the initially despondent but ultimately jubilant Piano Concerto by Beethoven’s musical follower Robert Schumann.