Beethoven, Ludwig van - Egmont, Complete Incidental Music - Häkkinen, Aapo

This recording by the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, conducted by Aapo Häkkinen and playing period instruments, contains all of Ludwig van Beethoven's (1770-1827) incidental music for Goethe's opera Egmont. Beethoven began composing incidental music for Goethe's opera Egmont in the fall of 1809. The recent experiences of Napoleon's siege of Vienna, the Spanish rebellion against France, and the omnipresent awareness of the oppressors inspired him to compose music in which the drama develops into a musical vision of the wars of liberation. The work was commissioned by the management of the Imperial Court Theater in Vienna, which, in October 1809, under Napoleon's oppression, had once again turned to Egmont for a new production. Beethoven was given the task of producing essential and indispensable music, which, however, was not performed until the fourth performance of the new production in June 1810. Beethoven had recently become an avid reader and admirer of Goethe. He had seen Mignon's song Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt four times in 1808 alone, and this had sparked a keen interest in songs set to Goethe's texts. In a letter to Bettina von Arnim in February 1811, Beethoven wrote: "My sincere admiration... for Goethe... I intend to write to him myself about Egmont, for which I have composed the music, out of pure love for his poetry..."