Overture to Egmont

Across his lifetime, Ludwig van Beethoven wrote nearly a dozen overtures, some as concert works, several for his only opera (Fidelio), and the rest attached to incidental music for dramatic stage works. All of them are serious in subject matter. Most of them are related to Beethoven’s lifelong faith in humanity, encompassing its need to both “fight for Good” and for heroes to lead us forward by example or sacrifice.

Between 1809 and 1810, Beethoven created his overture and incidental music to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s play Egmont (1788), at the invitation of the German National Theater in Vienna. (Beethoven’s own First Symphony premiered at this same theater in 1800.) The play tells the story of a 16th-century Dutch hero, Lamoral, Count of Egmont, who rallied the populace to fight against Spanish subjugation of the Netherlands. Beethoven readily agreed to write incidental music for the play’s revival, given a plot so well attuned to his own political beliefs in freedom and justice.

The overture, often played by itself in the concert hall, is quintessentially Beethoven. Grand chords begin a slow, ominous introduction. The chords are repeated along with slow melodic themes before a sudden outburst of energy carries us rapidly into eager anticipation. The musical fight continues in strong jabs and tuneful stirrings, building and developing not unlike one of Beethoven’s great symphonic movements. Eventually, a climactic and heroic call issues from the brass, carrying the overture to a shining, triumphant finish.

— Eric Sellen

Eric Sellen is The Cleveland Orchestra’s Editor Emeritus. He previously was Program Book Editor for 28 seasons.