Luogo e data di registrazione		Mann Auditorium, Tel-Aviv (Israele) - 28 ottobre 1993
	Registrazione: live / studio		live recording
	Producer		Yaron Karshai
	Recording producer		Yuval Karin
	Recording engineer		Eitan Shamai
	Mastering		Rafi Eshel
	Prima Edizione LP		-
	Prima Edizione CD		Helicon Classics | 02-9653 | 1 CD - 68' 05" | (p) & (c) 2012 | DDD
	Note		-

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55 "Eroica" Beethoven's view of himself as an independent artist was in keeping with the spirit of his tumultuous times, the era of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. The first major composer not to seek court or church appointments, Beethoven preferred to work with the sponsorship of aristocratic patrons, and on musical projects primarily of his own choosing. His imagination was ignited by Napoleon, who, as First Consul of the new French Republic, seemed to embody the ideals of the Revolutionary Era. Beethoven started work on his Third Symphony with the intention of entitling it "Bonaparte". But soon Napoleon crowned himself Emperor, becoming in the composer's view "only another tyrannical despot," and abandoning human values which Beethoven delt could not be compromised. Though musical historians caution that many anecdotes about Beethoven's stormy behavior cannot be substantiated, there is no boubt that his revulsion at Napoleon's ascension to the throne found violent expression. On the hand-written title page of one copy of the score, Beethoven erased the name "Bonaparte" so vehemently that he tore through the paper. Beethoven ultimately wrote on the title page, in Italian, "Heroic Symphony" (Sinfonia Eroica), "composed in memory of a great man." There has been speculation that the symphony expresses, in the wordless yet profoundly articulate language of Beethoven's music, not only the extra-musical concept of heroism - the title admits as much - but also an overall narrative shape. In this context, is the composer's designation of the second movement, Funeral March, more than a merely musical title? If so, do the other movements also have meanings, though unspecified? The most probable answer is that the symphony, certainly inspired by the idea of heroism, may even be "about" it, but not in the literal, descriptive or programmatic sense of Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life), for example. The narrative quality of the Eroica is a purely musical experience. The eighteenth-century tradition of the slow introduction (which Beethoven follows in hi first two symphonies) is decisively and brusquely shattered by the two short, loud chords which introduce the Eroica. The first theme is scarcely more than the tonic triad, but presented with a surprise twist (the enharmonic flat seventh in bar seven) which has melodic and harmonic implications Beethoven soon exploits. This first movement was the longest yet written in the traditional sonata-allegro form (exposition - development - recapitulation - coda). But it seems taut and concise due to the brevity and simplicity of the themes, and because of Beethoven's thoroughness in working out the possibilities of his material. The development section builds to a tutti passage of sustained dissonances which, though they resolve harmonically, must have been shocking at the premiere in 1805, and sound even today as though they connote struggle or battle. The abrupt retreat from this high-point (staccato quarter-notes in the strings) is a transition to a new melody - unexpected in the middle of a development section - played in E minor by the oboe. The recapitulation is anticipated by a tentative incantation of the movement's first theme, the second horn outlining the tonic chord against the violins' faint suggestion of an incomplete dominant chord (an unorthodoxy assumed by early listeners to be a wrong entrance by the second horn player). The coda, which is almost as long as the recapitulation, returns briefly to the new melody from the development section before concentrating on further elaboration of the main theme. Neither the simple formal outline of the Marcia funèbre nor the movement's direct emotional message requires explanation. But it does pay to remember that most music, even the art of great composers, was based, as a point of departure, on one or another of the common types of music familiar to the general public at the time of composition. That familiarity was a basis of communication from composer to listener. Taday's listener, for example, recognizes parody in Mahler - sometimes intentionally grotesque, macabre, or ironic - of certain types of music: waltzes and other dances, military marches, hymns and popular song. The listener should also recognize these and other types of music, usually without parody or irony, in the works of almost all eighteenth and nineteenth-century composers. It is not by accident that the first movement of this symphony resembles a waltz (which already existed in Beethoven's time). In the second movement, the rhythm and cadence of a military funeral march are still familiar - and the impact is still immediate. Beethoven's use of the double basses to conjure the effect of a snare drum (writing a bass part separate from the 'celli, unusual at that time) lends a particularly lugubrious tone to the beginning. The short interlude in C major, with its brassy recollection of triumph, leaves the eye no drier than the sustained grief of the long fugal passage which flows from the next recitation of the march music. As the movement reaches its end, the march is played only in fragments, like halting speech choked by grief (an expressive device used again by Beethoven at the end of his powerful Coriolan Overture). Except in his Eighth Symphony, Beethoven replaces the courtly minuet of the eighteenth-century symphony with his own rapid, bustling Scherzo, also in 3/4-time, but so quick that there is only one beat to the bar. This movement dances with lightness and power, an impression created in part by the running staccato quarter notes, often with larger intervals, of the bass line. The unusual use of three horns in the same key (rather than the standard pair, or the occasional two pairs in different keys) is highlighted in the Trio section, which is French hunting-horn music refined to suit Beethoven's expressive purpose. Toward the end of the Scherzo's reprise, four bars in duple time - a simple but startling effect - are one example of the freedom and inventiveness Beethoven had already developed in this new style. The Finale is a set of variations, some of them with fugal passages, and the last several of them encompassing two changes of tempo. The highseriousness, learned craft and noble inspiration of this music do not eclipse Beethoven's outrageous, titanic sense of humor, which is impossible to ignore at the beginning of the movement. The tremendous flourish of the opening measures introduces the most comically pithy of tunes, played slowly and pizzicato, on which the first two variations are based. But this tune turns out to be only the bass line of the actual theme, eventually played in full by the oboe. It comes from Beethoven's earlier ballet Prometheus and was also the subject of his Variations and Fugue on a Theme from "Prometheus" for piano (now usually knows as the "Eroica" Variations). The significance of this theme may be more than purely musical, but if Beethoven had Prometheus in mind, it was more likely in connection with himself as a creative artist - a creative force - than with any long-faded admiration for Napoleon Bonaparte. James Madison Cox Maurice Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales This work by Ravel is a homage to Franz Schubert. Ravel himself stated that its title, in which two Waltz cycles by Schubert are mentioned (Valses Nobles and Valses Sentimentales), clearly indicates his intention to compose a sequence of waltzes based on Schubert. Like many of Ravel's works, it was first written for piano and later orchestrated by the composer. The piano version was composed in 1911 and although Ravel was still a controversial figure at the time, his reputation as one of France's greatest composers had already been established. The first public performance of the Waltzes, by pianist Louis Aubert, to whom the work was dedicated, was booed by the audience. One year later, Ravel orchestrated the work as ballet music entitled Adélaide, or the Language of Flowers. He also wrote the ballet plot and conducted the premiere in April 1912. This version was received much more favorably than the original one. The ballet takes place in Paris around the year 1820, in the salon of the courtesan Adélaide has two suitors: the Duke, who offers her wealth, and Lorédan, offering her true love. The eight Waltzes depict the eight scenes of the ballet. The first Waltz is vigourous and festive, "spiced" with Ravelian dissonances. The scene takes place in Adélaide's salon, where couples are dancing and courting each other while Adélaide, the hostess, comes and goes. The second Waltz depicts Lorédan's entrance in a melancholy atmosphere. He gives Adélaide a buttercup, a symbol of love. The music is written in restrained elegance with a touch of sadness prominent in the elegiac theme. In the third Waltz, Adélaide plucks the petals of the flower one after the other (like the game "He loves me, he loves me not") and discovers that Lorédan truly loves her. This Waltz is followed without a break by the fourth Waltz, in which Adélaide and Lorédan dance together and seem very much in love. The moment Adélaide sees the Duke, she stops dancing. This Waltz also leads directly to the following one. In the fifth Waltz, the Duke gives Adélaide sunflowers and a diamond necklace, which she immediately puts on. In the sixth Waltz desperate Lorédan tries his luck once again, but is rejected by Adélaide. The seventh Waltz opens with the Duke begging Adélaide to save the last dance for him, but she refuses and leaves to look for Lorédan. Many parts of the final Waltz resemble fragments of melodies from the preceding Waltzes. The guests leave and the Duke, who hopes that Adélaide will ask him to stay, receives a bunch of acacia flowers, a symbol of Platonic love. He leaves angrily and Adélaide gives Lorédan a poppy, a symbol of forgetfulness. He rejects the flower and leaves in despair, only to return with a gun in his hand, which he aims at his head. Adélaide offers him a red rose and falls into his arms. Orly Tal