Yannick's "Eroica"

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”) was originally intended as a grand and heroic tribute to Napoleon. Upon learning that Napoleon had crowned himself Emperor of all Europe, the disaffected Beethoven scratched out the dedication with such vigor that he tore through the paper. In the end, the hero of this Symphony is the composer himself, who succeeded in creating a new architecture for the symphonic form and ignited the Romantic style in music.

Strauss composed his Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings in 1945 amid the cultural and physical destruction of World War II. The work opens with a haunting rhythm clearly quoting the funeral march of Beethoven’s “Eroica.” The intensity and pathos is that of a mature conductor nearing the end of his career—-in contrast to compositions of the younger Strauss heard earlier in the season. Another paring of Beethoven and Shostakovich. Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 was written for the great cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and given its U.S. premiere (and first recording) by him, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and Eugene Ormandy in 1959. Norwegian cellist Truls Mørk returns to Philadelphia to perform this fiendish Concerto, which, like the Tenth and Eleventh symphonies heard elsewhere in the season, was written following the death of Stalin and marks a return to greater creative freedom for the composer.